Effect of probiotics on lipid profiles and blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis of RCTs

BACKGROUND: This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of probiotics on blood lipid and blood pressure among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) based on the randomized controlled studies. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and VIP database were searched by the index words to identify the qualified randomized control trial. The latest research was done in the January 2017. Mean difference (MD) along with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to analyze the included outcomes. RESULTS: Ten trials were included at last with 297 patients in the treatment group and 294 patients in the control group. Probiotics significantly decreased the value of total cholesterol (SMD −0.57, 95% CI −0.92 to 0.21), triglyceride (SMD −0.66, 95% CI −0.93 to 0.39), low-density lipoprotein (SMD −0.40, 95% CI −0.79 to 0.01), systolic blood pressure (WMD −5.04, 95% CI −8.8 to 1.20), diastolic blood pressure (SMD −0.39, 95% CI −0.62 to 0.17), fasting blood glucose (FBG) (SMD 3.54, 95% CI 1.94–5.15) compared with the placebo treatment. Apart from this, probiotics could significantly improve the value of high-density lipoprotein (SMD 0.38, 95% CI 0.03–0.73). CONCLUSION: Probiotics may decrease the indexes of lipid profile, blood pressure, and FBG in patients with T2DM; application of probiotics might be a new method for lipid profiles and blood pressure management in T2DM.