Functional mouth rinse containing inorganic nitrate and antioxidants bolsters the enterosalivary pathway and lowers blood pressure in Wistar rats.

The enterosalivary pathway generates systemic nitric oxide from dietary nitrate for vasodilation and blood pressure (BP) regulation, but standard antibacterial mouth rinses may disrupt this process. This study evaluated a bioactive mouth rinse infused with inorganic nitrate and antioxidants on mechanistic and clinical measures of the enterosalivary pathway, vascular health, and oral microbiome compared to an antibacterial mouth rinse containing chlorhexidine (CHX). Nine-week-old male Wistar rats were randomized to the bioactive or CHX rinse administered twice daily for one week. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were measured using tail cuff plethysmography. Blood and salivary nitrate and nitrite concentrations were determined by ozone-based chemiluminescence. Oral microbiome was assessed by 16S rRNA V4 gene amplicon sequencing. From baseline to week one, favorable changes in SBP (p = 0.008) and DBP (p = 0.016) were observed in the bioactive group compared to the CHX group. Blood and salivary nitrate and salivary nitrite concentrations (p < 0.05) were higher in the bioactive group. Compared to the CHX group, the bioactive group had significantly greater mean relative abundance of genera with established nitrate-/nitrite-reducing properties. Results suggest mouth rinse infused with inorganic nitrate and antioxidants favorably modulates the oral microbiome to support the enterosalivary pathway while reducing BP over one week.