FIGURE 1.

The cartoon of experimental design to investigate the potential mechanism of ATF4 participating in high-salt diet-induced hypertension. Wild-type (WT) C57BL/6J mice, Atf4 knockout (Atf4^±) and Atf4 overexpression mice were used and high-salt-diet (8% NaCl) for 4 weeks was used to induce hypertensive mice. Then, fecal microbiota transplantation from Atf4^± mice and vitamin K₂ supplementation were separately carried out to verify the gut microbiota-related evidence of the association between ATF4 and blood pressure. ATF4, activating transcription factor 4; KO, Atf4^± mice; WT, wild-type mice; NO, nitric oxide; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; ANGI, angiotensin I; ET-1, endothelin-1; KO-ND, Atf4^± mice with natural diet; KO-HSD, Atf4^± mice with high-salt diet; ND, WT mice with natural diet; HSD, WT mice with high-salt diet; OE, Atf4 overexpression with high-salt diet; OC, Atf4 overexpression control with high-salt diet; FMT, fecal microbiota transplantation; VK2, vitamin K2.