Spermidine may protect against cardiovascular risk factors: Study

11-Oct-2024 - Last updated on 11-Oct-2024 at 14:12 GMT

Spermidine is a polyamine compound present in a variety of dietary sources, including wheat germ. Image © id-art / Getty Images

Higher levels of spermidine may decrease a range of cardiovascular risk factors, including LDL-cholesterol and elevated blood sugar levels, while increasing HDL-cholesterol, says a new study.

Data published in Nutrition indicated that spermine levels may act as “an important protective agent against cardiovascular risk factors”.

“This is, to our knowledge, the first study of the relationship between spermidine levels and cardiovascular risk factors using bi-directional two-sample MR [Mendelian randomization] analysis,” wrote scientists from the Capital Medical University in Beijing and the Beijing Gobroad Healthcare Group.

Mendelian randomization is a statistical analysis technique used to infer the potential causal relationship between spermidine and heart health.

“Given the significance of our study, increasing spermidine levels by dietary or therapeutic means may be a novel approach to promoting cardiovascular health.”

Building the science

Spermidine is a polyamine compound that was originally identified in semen (hence the name) but is present in a variety of dietary sources, including wheat germ, soybeans, cheddar cheese, mushrooms and mango.

As reported previously by NutraIngredients-USA, the compound is receiving increasing attention for its significant promise in limiting the effects of aging. Several other studies have reported the potential cognitive health benefits in humans, including a paper in 2018 in Cortex, which concluded that spermidine supplementation for three months was associated with “a positive impact on memory performance in older adults with subject cognitive decline”.

A 2022 paper in the Journal of Anatomy reported that data from mice suggested that spermidine supplements may protect the mitochondria in hearts of older individuals, linked to the compound’s ability to stimulate both the removal (mitophagy) and creation of new mitochondria (biogenesis).

Study details

The Beijing-based scientists used data from the UK Biobank, which encompasses health data and biological samples from over 500,000 British participants.

Crunching the numbers using the Mendelian randomization approach revealed that elevated spermidine levels were protective against a range of factors, including hypertension, elevated blood glucose and lipid profiles (LDL-C and HDL-C).

Specifically, higher spermidine levels were associated with significant reductions in the risk of hypertension, while the risk of elevated blood glucose was also decreased.

“These results underline the potential of spermidine as a modifiable dietary target for the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases,” the researchers wrote.

“Further investigations are warranted to explore the underlying biological mechanisms and the applicability of these findings in broader and diverse populations.”

Source: Nutrition
Nov. 2024, 127:112549, doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2024.112549
“Protective effects of spermidine levels against cardiovascular risk factors: An exploration of causality based on a bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis”
Authors: T. Wang et al.