The impact of dietary sodium and fructose on renal sodium handling and blood pressure in healthy adults
Date
2025-03-25
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Physiological Reports
Abstract
Increased dietary sodium is linked to hypertension, but most young adults display “sodium-resistant” blood pressure (BP), meaning BP is not elevated with sodium loading. In sodium-resistant rodents, fructose induces salt-sensitive BP via increased renal sodium reabsorption. Therefore, we tested the impact of fructose and sodium on renal sodium handling and BP in healthy adults, hypothesizing that their combination would impair sodium excretion and increase BP. Thirty-six participants enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial involving three diets varying in fructose and sodium. On day 7, participants wore ambulatory BP monitors and collected 24-h urine. Although high sodium increased urinary sodium excretion, excretion was 15% lower with high fructose plus high salt versus high salt alone (235.1 ± 85.0 vs. 277.9 ± 121.2 mmol/24 h, p = 0.05). Compared to the recommended diet, high salt alone did not significantly change 24 h. MAP; however, high fructose plus high salt modestly raised 24 h MAP (81 ± 6 vs. 84 ± 7 mmHg, p = 0.03). High fructose and high salt increased serum interleukin-6 concentrations compared to the recommended diet (0.31 ± 0.2 vs. 0.24 ± 0.19 pg/mL, p = 0.04). These findings suggest that increased sodium and fructose alter renal sodium handling and BP in young adults.
Description
This article was originally published in Physiological Reports. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.70284.
© 2025 The Author(s). Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords
blood pressure, fructose, renal function, salt
Citation
McMillan, R. K., Stock, J. M., Romberger, N. T., Wenner, M. M., Chai, S. C., & Farquhar, W. B. (2025). The impact of dietary sodium and fructose on renal sodium handling and blood pressure in healthy adults. Physiological Reports, 13, e70284. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.70284