Nitrate and body homeostasis
Jian Zhou, Huan Liu, Lei Hu, Hideaki Kagami, Songlin Wang
Abstract
Homeostasis is essential for the maintenance of health, and how it is maintained is the focus of attention in homeostatic medicine. As a natural dietary nutrient, nitrate is critical in regulating homeostasis. This article summarizes nitrate’s cognitive history, sources, and metabolism. It discusses the relationship and possible mechanism between nitrate and organism homeostasis from three aspects: flora homeostasis, inflammation-immunity homeostasis, and energy metabolism homeostasis, as well as the clinical application scenarios of nitrate as a promising new generation of drugs, including preventing and treating multi-system diseases, reducing organism injury, improving exercise ability, regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, and assisting tumor treatment. An increased understanding of nitrate’s impact on body homeostasis could foster a new research concept for its application in disease prevention and treatment.