Enzymatically hydrolyzed lactotripeptides do not lower blood pressure in mildly hypertensive subjects 1 3

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1 Enzymatically hydrolyzed lactotripeptides do not lower blood pressure in mildly hypertensive subjects 1 3 Kim van der Zander, Michiel L Bots, Annette AA Bak, Mettina MG Koning, and Peter W de Leeuw ABSTRACT Background: Several placebo-controlled clinical studies suggest that products containing isoleucyl-prolyl-proline and valyl-prolylproline are able to lower blood pressure without adverse effects. The most efficient way of producing high concentrations of these lactotripeptides (LTPs) is enzymatic hydrolysis of dairy protein (casein) with the use of a mixture of several enzymes derived from the nongenetically modified organism Aspergillus oryzae, including proteases and peptidases. To date, no large studies of the blood pressure lowering properties of enzymatically produced LTP () powder in European populations have been published. Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the hypothesis that consumption of in a yogurt beverage for 8 wk significantly lowers blood pressure. Design: In this multicenter, double-blind, parallel, placebocontrolled trial, office blood pressure was evaluated in 275 Dutch hypertensive subjects. Blood pressures and body weight were measured on several days at baseline and at weeks 4 and 8 of the intervention between 2.5 and 3 h after intake of the test product. Twentyfour h urine samples were collected at baseline and at the end of the intervention for urinalysis of sodium, potassium, creatinine, and microalbumin excretion. Results: The results showed that 10.2 mg /d does not lead to a reduction in systolic blood pressure (P 0.66) or diastolic blood pressure (P 0.72) compared with placebo. Conclusion: This study showed no effect of an -enriched yogurt beverage on blood pressure in hypertensive subjects in a fairly large study. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;88: INTRODUCTION Several placebo-controlled clinical studies suggest that products containing isoleucyl-prolyl-proline (IPP) and valyl-prolylproline (VPP) are able to lower blood pressure without adverse effects (1 15). Although most of these studies have reported a statistically significant decrease in blood pressure in hypertensive subjects by these lactotripeptides (LTPs), the magnitude of this effect varies considerably. For instance, in Japanese studies, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) decreased over the 8-wk intervention by 10 and 4 mm Hg, respectively, at a dose between 2 and 4 mg LTP/d (1 10). On the other hand, in Finnish studies, a mean decrease in SBP and DBP of 4 and 2 mm Hg, respectively, was observed at higher doses of 5 6 mg LTP/d (13, 14). Furthermore, an even higher dose of 52.5 mg LTP had only modest effects on 24-h ambulatory SBP and DBP ( 4 and 2 mm Hg, respectively; P and P 0.048, respectively) and did not lower office blood pressure (OBP) at all (15). Because LTP reduced SBP in the European studies to a lesser degree than the anticipated 4 5 mm Hg based on Asian studies, these studies may have been underpowered to show an effect of LTP over and above that of placebo. For clinical studies, 3 different test products containing IPP and VPP are available: directly fermented milk (1 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 15), powdered fermented milk (FLTP powder) (5, 11), and powdered enzymatically hydrolyzed LTP () (7, 10). The most efficient way of producing high concentrations of LTP is the enzymatic hydrolysis of dairy protein (casein) with a mixture of several enzymes derived from the nongenetically modified organism Aspergillus oryzae, including proteases and peptidases (16, 17). After denaturization of the enzymes by sterilization, the resulting dried casein hydrolysate powder ( powder) contains 0.7% LTPs. Japanese researchers have confirmed the blood pressure lowering potential of in animal and human studies (7, 10, 17). We observed a dose-dependent blood pressure lowering effect of on office DBP (P 0.030) but not on SBP (PW de Leeuw, K van der Zander, AA Kroon, RJMW Rennenberg, and MMG Koning, unpublished observations, 2008) in a study of subjects per treatment group. Furthermore, in a recent study, Engberink et al (18) could not support a blood pressure lowering effect of (containing 10.4 mg LTP) compared with placebo in a study of 32 subjects per treatment group. It may be that these studies, which are summarized in Table 1, did not have enough power to show a small but significant effect of any dose of these peptides compared with placebo. To date, no other large studies of the blood pressure lowering properties of in European populations have been published. Therefore, the present study was performed to evaluate the hypothesis that consumption of in a yogurt beverage for 8 wk significantly lowers blood pressure in European hypertensive subjects. 1 From Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, Vlaardingen, Netherlands (KvdZ and MMGK); the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands (MLB and AAAB); and the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht and Academic Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, Netherlands (PWdL). 2 Supported by Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, Vlaardingen, Netherlands. The test products were provided by the Unilever Food & Health Research Institute. 3 Reprints not available. Address correspondence to PW de Leeuw, Department of Medicine, University Hospital Maastricht, PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, Netherlands. p.deleeuw@intmed.unimaas.nl. Received February 14, Accepted for publication August 31, doi: /ajcn Am J Clin Nutr 2008;88: Printed in USA American Society for Nutrition 1697

2 1698 VAN DER ZANDER ET AL TABLE 1 Previous intervention studies on the effects of lactotripeptides (LTPs) on blood pressure 1 Reference Subjects Duration Results Fermented milk Hata et al 1996 (1) 36 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.01) and DBP (P 0.05) compared with baseline Itakura et al 2001 (3) 18 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Lower SBP in hypertensive subjects compared with baseline 26 normotensive Kajimoto et al 2001 (4) 36 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.05) and DBP (P 0.05) compared with baseline Hirata et al 2002 (2) 32 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.05) and DBP (P 0.05) compared with baseline Kajimoto et al 2002 (6) 64 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.01) and DBP (P 0.01) compared with baseline Mizushima et al 2004 (8) 46 grade 1 hypertensive 4 wk Lower SBP and DBP compared with baseline Nakamura et al 2004 (9) 106 high normotensive 12 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.01) and DBP (P 0.01) compared with baseline Seppo et al 2002 (12) 17 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.05) and DBP (P 0.05) compared with placebo Seppo et al 2003 (13) 39 grade 1 hypertensive 21 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.05) compared with placebo Tuomilehto et al 2004 (14) 60/39 grade 1 hypertensive 10/5 wk Lower SBP and DBP compared with baseline/placebo Jauhiainen et al 2005 (15) 94 high normotensive 10 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.001) and DBP (P 0.05) compared with placebo FLTP Kajimoto et al 2001 (5) 81 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.001) and DBP (P 0.001) compared with placebo Aihara et al 2005 (11) 40 high normotensive 4 wk Significantly lower DBP (P 0.05) in high-normotensive subjects and 40 grade 1 hypertensive SBP (P 0.01) in hypertensive subjects Engberink et al 2008 (18) 135 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk No blood pressure lowering effect observed Mizuno et al 2005 (7) 48 high normotensive 6 wk Dose-dependent lower blood pressure 83 grade 1 hypertensive Effect on SBP was significant in hypertensive subjects compared with placebo (P 0.05 for low and middle dose; P 0.01 for high dose) Sano et al 2005 (10) 104 high normotensive 12 wk Significantly lower SBP (P 0.05) in high-normotensive and hypertensive 40 grade 1 hypertensive subjects compared with placebo and DBP (P 0.05) in hypertensive subjects compared with placebo Engberink et al 2008 (18) 135 grade 1 hypertensive 8 wk No blood pressure lowering effect observed 1 SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; FLTP, fermented powdered milk;, enzymatically hydrolyzed LTPs. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Subjects The study was performed at 3 sites located in the Netherlands from September 2005 until March Participants were recruited from Maastricht, Utrecht, and Amersfoort and their surroundings by preselection from databases, through advertisements in newspapers, and by door-to-door flyers. Subjects who expressed their interest in the study completed a telephone screening. Of these subjects, apparently eligible candidates received the information brochure and answered the personal and selection questionnaire. Finally, suitable subjects visited the research centers for screening. Subjects qualified for the study when they were between 35 and 70 y of age, were able to stop antihypertensive medication use 3 wk before screening, and fulfilled the blood pressure criteria. To minimize the risk of misclassification of a person s blood pressure, blood pressure was measured in duplicate on 2 separate screening visits(the second after an overnight fast). Inclusion criteria were an average (based on the 2 visits) systolic blood pressure between 140 and 179 mm Hg and an average diastolic blood pressure 100 mm Hg. Exclusion criteria were the use of blood pressure lowering medication or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, abnormal results of biochemical analyses of blood and urine, smoking, unstable weight, alcohol abuse, milk allergy, and pregnancy. The Medical Ethics Committee of the Maastricht University and Academic Hospital approved the study protocol. The Medical Ethics Committee of University Medical Center Utrecht gave local approval (Utrecht and Amersfoort). All participants received both written and oral information and gave their written consent. The study was performed according to the International Conference on Harmonisation Good Clinical Practice guidelines. Study design This study was designed as a multicenter, randomized, doubleblind, parallel, placebo-controlled trial. When subjects qualified for inclusion in the trial, they were randomly assigned to receive either the test or the control product (Figure 1). The formulation was incorporated in a yogurt drink, and their effect was assessed compared with a control yogurt drink. Over a period of 8 wk, subjects consumed 2 bottles of test product (100 g) with their breakfast. The effect of treatment was measured between 2.5 and 3 h after intake by measuring OBP at baseline (visit days 1, 2, and 3), after 4 wk of intervention (visits day 4 and 5), and at week 8 of intervention (visit days 6, 7, and 8). Before the OBP measurements were made, subjects were weighed. Urine was collected for 24-h at the beginning and end of the study for urinalysis (see below). To calculate the background dairy intake of the subjects, records were kept for 3d(2 weekdays and one weekend day) before randomization and at the end of the intervention. Diet instructions For the duration of the study, subjects were asked to maintain their habitual sodium and dairy intakes and physical activity patterns. They had to refrain from the consumption of nondairy fermented foods, alcohol-containing beverages, or strenuous exercise for 12 h before the test day, which started after an overnight fast. Because of the effect of caffeine on blood pressure,

3 ENZYMATICALLY HYDROLYZED LACTOTRIPEPTIDES AND BLOOD PRESSURE Allocated to enzymatic hydrolyzed LTP 55 Used antihypertensive medication before the study 134 Completed intervention 4603 Completed telephone screening 1383 Answered selection questionnaire 1097 Screened 283 Eligible (=safety population) 275 Randomized (=ITT population) 3220 Excluded criteria (BMI, age) or voluntary withdrawal 286 Excluded criteria (medical history) or voluntary withdrawal 814 Excluded criteria (BP, routine lab analysis) or voluntary withdrawal 8 Lost during baseline criteria (BP) or voluntary withdrawal 139 Allocated to 56 Used antihypertensive medication before the study 137 Completed intervention FIGURE 1. Flow chart showing the selection process, randomization, and dropout rate of the study participants. ITT, intention-to-treat; LTP, Lactotripeptides; BP, blood pressure. only one caffeinated beverage was allowed per test day at breakfast. On the first test day, volunteers recorded what and how much they ate for breakfast and the time of consumption. On the basis of these records, subjects had exactly the same food and drinks on subsequent test days. Test and control products Unilever manufactured both the test and the control product from pasteurized yogurt. The substance added to the test product was a casein hydrolysate powder, enzymatically hydrolyzed by an Aspergillus oryzae protease (Arla Foods, Copenhagen, Denmark). The test product (200 g -enriched yogurt beverage) contained 28.9 mg IPP/L and 22.0 mg VPP/L. The addition of in the test product led to an extra protein and lactic acid content that was corrected for with skim milk powder and a lactic acid solution in the control product. Furthermore, pectin was added for stability and sugar and flavor for taste. Consequently, the nutritional composition of both test products was 13% carbohydrate, 1.5% fat, 3.6% protein, 90mgCa/100g,and141mgK/100g.Bothused(empty)andunused bottles had to be returned to the research center by the volunteers to assess adherence with the product. Blood pressure measurements OBP was taken on 2 (week 4) or 3 (baseline and week 8) consecutive days, while the subjects were in a sitting position, on the left arm after 15 min of rest with an oscillometric automatic device (Omron HEM 907; Omron Healthcare, Inc, Bannockburn, IL). Each measurement was derived from 3 successive readings separated by 30 s. If the difference in SBP between the last 2 measurements was 7 mm Hg, an additional measurement was performed. The mean of the last 2 readings was used for analysis. The first blood pressure measurements of each test day was not used in the statistical analysis of the data, but served the purpose of getting the volunteers accustomed (and thus relaxed) to the measurements. Twenty-four h urinalysis From the 24-h urine sample, 10 ml was used for the measurement of Na,K, microalbumin, and creatinine excretion. Medical Laboratories Stein & Colleagues analyzed all samples in one run after storage of the urine at 20 C. Statistical considerations On the basis of previous experiments, we expected a withinsubject variance in SBP over time of 71 (SD 2 ). Therefore, to demonstrate a decrease in SBP of 3 mm Hg with a power of 90%, 135 subjects were needed in each arm of the study. To allow for dropout, 13 more subjects were recruited. Statistical analysis was performed by using SAS Software (version 9.1; SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Descriptive analyses included distribution statistics (number of available observations, mean, SD) for continuous data. For OBP, the means of all measurements during the consecutive days of each week (4 or 8) were averaged, and change from baseline (week 0) was considered the response variable for the analysis. Data from visits 1, 2, and 3 were averaged for baseline values; those from visit 4 and 5 for the response at 4 wk; and those from visits 6, 7, and 8 for the response at 8 wk of intervention. The effects of treatment on both primary (blood pressure) and secondary outcomes (urinalysis, weight, and background diet) were evaluated for each week (4 or 8) by means of an analysis of covariance, including treatment, subject, and baseline blood pressure in the model. The difference in efficacy between placebo and active ingredient was estimated on the basis of adjusted means. No adjustments were made for multiplicity due to testing multiple(secondary) variables. The secondary analyses were expected to support the primary results. Tests on blood pressure variables were 1-sided, whereas they were 2-sided for the other variables with a significance level of 5%. Finally, we tested a restricted set of prespecified potential confounders on the magnitude of the treatment effect. These included starting cohort, weight change, site, and change in urinary the Na /K excretion ratio (only at week 8). RESULTS We enrolled 283 subjects into this study according to the flow chart in Figure 1. From the intention-to-treat population (ie, all individuals who had been randomly assigned and received at least one dose of the study treatment), 111 subjects had been taking antihypertensive medication in the past 3 mo before the study, but not during the intervention. Four volunteers dropped out during the study intervention; 2 withdrew consent because of personal circumstances (allocated to ) and 2 because their blood pressure increased to levels above the exclusion criteria(allocated to control). The characteristics of the study population at the start of the study are presented in Table 2. The groups were well balanced. Also, estimated adherence to treatment was excellent and comparable between the treatment groups (98% in both groups). Office blood pressure Eight weeks of intervention showed a minor decrease in blood pressure that was not statistically significantly different between

4 1700 VAN DER ZANDER ET AL TABLE 2 Baseline characteristics of study subjects 1 Characteristic (n 76 M, 60 F) (n 77 M, 62 F) Age (y) Body weight (kg) BMI (kg/m 2 ) Plasma lipid profile Total cholesterol (mmol/l) LDL cholesterol (mmol/l) HDL cholesterol (mmol/l) Triglycerides (mmol/l) SBP (mm Hg) DBP (mm Hg) Heart rate (beats/min) Urinary sodium (mmol/24 h) Urinary potassium (mmol/24 h) Dairy protein intake (g/d) Diary calcium intake (mg/d) All values are means SDs., enzymatically hydrolyzed lactotripeptides; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure. None of the differences between the 2 groups were statistically significant. the and control treatments (Table 3). The results of the per-protocol population (n 258), which included only those who adhered to the protocol, displayed similar results (data not shown). In exploratory post hoc confounder analysis, the magnitude of blood pressure lowering was not affected by age, sex, cohort, research site, previous use of antihypertensive medication, BMI, and urinary excretion of sodium and potassium. A posterior power analysis using the actual measured withinsubject variance of 24, showed that the present study had a power of 90% to detect a significant difference of 3 mm Hg between the treatment arms at week 8. TABLE 3 Diet markers and blood pressure during follow-up 1 Measurement (n 136) Body weight, background diet, and adverse events Body weight did not change significantly during the 8-wk study period ( kg in the group compared with kg in the control group; P 0.48). The background diet, as measured by 24-h urinary excretion of sodium and potassium and derived from the diary, also showed no significant changes during the study (Table 3). Adverse events were registered from all of the subjects (n 283) who participated in the study and have been coded according to ICD-9. A total of 169 subjects reported adverse events (AEs). Three serious AEs (hip operation, death after heart failure between screening and the start of the study, and a case of severe hypertension) were reported but were considered to be unrelated to the study. Only 2 AEs (severe hypertension and headache) led to discontinuation of (placebo) treatment. Frequency, intensity, and duration of AEs between treatment groups were not significantly different. The most common complaints were brief periods of upper respiratory tract infections and headache (ICD-9 codes , acute nasopharyngitis, and headache): 49 reports during -milk treatment and 59 reports during placebo treatment. Gastrointestinal AEs (ICD-9 code 787-related, diarrhea, vomiting, pyrosis, etc) were not very common (12 reports in each group). None of the AEs were considered to be related to any of the test products. DISCUSSION The results of the current study in 275 mild hypertensive subjects showed that 10.2 mg /d did not lead to a reduction in OBP compared with placebo. This lack of effect does not seem to result from inadequate intake as estimated adherence with the product in this study was excellent. Nevertheless, we recognize that our method of assessing adherence was rather crude, and that actual adherence may have been lower. Our findings are in contrast with those obtained in several populations, mainly Japanese Week 4 Week 8 (n 139) P value 2 (n 134) (n 137) P value 2 SBP (mm Hg) Change from baseline DBP (mm Hg) Change from baseline Heart rate (beats/min) Change from baseline Diet markers Urinary sodium (mmol/24 h) Change from baseline Urinary potassium (mmol/24 h) Change from baseline Dairy protein intake (g/d) Change from baseline Dairy calcium intake (mg/d) Change from baseline All values are least-squares means SEM (means adjusted for the imbalance in number of subjects and/or the number of observations because of dropouts and/or missing data)., enzymatically hydrolyzed lactotripeptides; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure. 2 P values (ANCOVA) refer to the differences between the 2 study groups at the respective time periods. 3 Significantly different from baseline, P 0.05.

5 ENZYMATICALLY HYDROLYZED LACTOTRIPEPTIDES AND BLOOD PRESSURE 1701 and Finnish (1, 2, 4 7, 10 13, 15). What could explain the discrepancy in results between our study and the others? We studied people who were generally healthy except for elevated blood pressure with sodium, potassium, and dairy intakes representative of the typical Dutch population. The number of subjects would a priori have been sufficient to demonstrate a blood pressure reduction from in this study. The posterior power analysis showed that the study was very well powered. Because the variability in measurements was reduced as much as possible by measuring OBP on several consecutive days, and was comparable with the variability associated with 24-h ambulatory measurements in other studies, the lack of effect was likely due to large individual variability in blood pressure responses to treatment. Nevertheless, we found no difference in the number of responders (based on a lowering of SBP of 3mmHg or the attainment of a SBP 140 mm Hg) between the and placebo treatments. This further supports the conclusion that does not affect blood pressure. From a theoretical point of view, several variables such as baseline blood pressure, race, and background diet were able to modify the response to. It has been suggested that LTPenriched products would have a greater effect in mild-tomoderate hypertensive patients and do not affect blood pressure in normotensive subjects (7, 10, 11). However, this cannot explain the lack of effect in this study, because blood pressure was clearly elevated in our patients (average blood pressure at baseline: 150/86 mm Hg). The potential influence of race and background diet as a cause of a differential effect in Asian and European populations is more difficult to assess. No studies that investigated different ethnicities have been reported. Therefore, it remains speculative why Japanese researchers showed a significant reduction in blood pressure by, whereas this could not be confirmed in European subjects (7, 10). It was observed that mainly small studies showed a large blood pressure lowering effects, whereas large studies showed smaller or no effects, which suggests publication bias. Until now, investigators used 3 different test products containing IPP and VPP in clinical studies: direct fermented milk (1 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 15), FLTP (5, 11), and powder (7, 10). Direct fermented milk has been investigated in most of the studies and resulted in an average decrease of 8 mm Hg SBP. Powdered fermented milk and powdered enzymatically hydrolyzed casein have been less well studied, but seemed to generate smaller effects on SBP: decreases of 6 and 3 mm Hg for FLTP and, respectively. These results have led to the speculation that a specific production route is important to the generation of LTP-induced blood pressure lowering effects; therefore, does not affect blood pressure or at least exploits rather modest effects compared with fermented products. However, it is unknown whether the smaller SBP decreases observed were due to the lower number of subjects that have been studied so far or that is indeed less effective than fermented products. Because fermented milk products at a similar LTP level have different (bioactive) peptide profiles, these products could theoretically generate a larger drop in blood pressure than. However, further research on fermented products or a head-to-head comparison of different LTP production routes on blood pressure reduction is needed to confirm this hypothesis. Foltz et al (19) recently confirmed that IPP is able to enter the blood circulation undegraded after oral ingestion of an enriched yogurt beverage. Although the acute oral bolus of LTP in that study is 5 times that in the current study, the maximum levels of IPP were observed min after intake of the -enriched beverage and min after intake of the control product. This raises the question of whether a reduction in blood pressure could be observed between 2.5 and 3 h after intake in this study. In contrast, however, Jauhiainen et al (15) observed a significant fall in 24-h ambulatory blood pressure after consumption of fermented milk for 10 wk. This could suggest that fermented milk is indeed more potent at reducing blood pressure than is. However, there may be more bioactives present in fermented milk products than in IPP alone, which could contribute to the effect over 24 h. A study that investigated the development of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats indicated that intake of fermented milk indeed attenuated high blood pressure more effectively than did pure synthetically produced LTP or pure LTP combined with minerals (20). In conclusion, this study showed no effect of an -enriched yogurt beverage on the blood pressure of hypertensive subjects. We thank Peter Holleman, Linda van Osch, Inge Verkooijen, and Frans Thomassen for their substantive contributions to the study conduct. The authors responsibilities were as follows KvdZ: designed the study, monitored the study conduct, analyzed and interpreted the data, and wrote the manuscript; MLB: provided significant advice and consultation, critically evaluated the manuscript, and collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data; AAAB (Principle Investigator at the Utrecht/Amersfoort site and study physician): designed the study, provided significant advice and consultation, and critically evaluated the manuscript; MMGK: designed the study, monitored the study conduct, interpreted the data, and critically evaluated the manuscript; PWdL (Principle Investigator at the Maastricht site and study physician): designed the study, provided significant advice and consultation, interpreted the data, and critically evaluated the manuscript; and MLB, AAAB, and PWdL: had full access to all of the data in the study and took responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. The sponsor monitored the study, but was not involved in on-site data collection, data analysis, or data interpretation. KvdZ and MMGK are employees of the Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, Vlaardingen, Netherlands. No conflicts of interest were declared by the other authors. REFERENCES 1. Hata Y, Yamamoto M, Ohni M, Nakajima K, Nakamura Y, Takano T. A placebo-controlled study of the effect of sour milk on blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 1996;64: Hirata H, Nakamura Y, Yada H, Moriguchi S, Kajimoto O, Takahashi T. Clinical effects of new sour milk drink on mild or moderate hypertensive subjects. J New Rem Clin 2002;51: Itakura H, Ikemoto S, Terada S, Kondo K. The effect of sour milk on blood pressure in untreated hypertensive and normotensive subjects. J Jap Soc Clin Nutr 2001;23: Kajimoto O, Nakamura Y, Yada H, Moriguchi S, Hirata H, Takahashi T. Hypotensive effects of sour milk in subjects with mild or moderate hypertension. 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6 1702 VAN DER ZANDER ET AL containing lactotripeptides (VPP,IPP) on high-normal blood pressure. J Nutr Food 2004;7: Sano J, Ohki K, Higuchi T, et al. Effect of casein hydrolysate, prepared with protease derived from Aspergillus oryzae, on subjects with highnormal blood pressure or mild hypertension. J Med Food 2005;8: Aihara K, Kajimoto O, Hirata H, Takahashi R, Nakamura Y. Effect of powdered fermented milk with Lactobacillus helveticus on subjects with high-normal blood pressure or mild hypertension. J Am Coll Nutr 2005; 24: Seppo L, Kerojoki O, Suomalainen T, Korpela R. The effect of a Lactobacillus helveticus LBK-16 H fermented milk on hypertension a pilot study on humans. Milchwissenschaft 2002;57: Seppo L, Jauhiainen T, Poussa T, Korpela R. A fermented milk high in bioactive peptides has a blood pressure-lowering effect in hypertensive subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77: Tuomilehto J, Lindstrom J, Hyyrynen J, et al. Effect of ingesting sour milk fermented using Lactobacillus helveticus bacteria producing tripeptides on blood pressure in subjects with mild hypertension. J Hum Hypertens 2004;18: Jauhiainen T, Vapaatalo H, Poussa T, Kyronpalo S, Rasmussen M, Korpela R. Lactobacillus helveticus fermented milk lowers blood pressure in hypertensive subjects in 24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurement Am J Hypertens 2005;18: Matsuura K, Mizuno S, Nishimura S, Gotou T, Yamamoto N. Quantitative analysis of antihypertensive peptides, Val-Pro-Pro and Ile-Pro- Pro, in casein hydrolyzate with Aspergillus oryzae protease by a LC-MS method. Milchwissenschaft 2004;60: Mizuno S, Nishimura S, Matsuura K, Gotou T, Yamamoto N. Release of short and proline-rich antihypertensive peptides from casein hydrolysate with an Aspergillus oryzae protease. J Dairy Sci 2004;87: Engberink MF, Schouten EG, Kok FJ, van Mierlo LA, Brouwer IA, Geleijnse JM. Lactotripeptides show no effect on human blood pressure: results from a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Hypertension 2008;51: Foltz M, Meynen EE, Bianco V, van Platerink C, Koning TM, Kloek J. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory peptides from a lactotripeptideenriched milk beverage are absorbed intact into the circulation. J Nutr 2007; 137: Jauhiainen T, Collin M, Narva M, et al. Effect of long-term intake of milk peptides and minerals on blood pressure and arterial function in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Milchwissenschaft 2005;60: