Abstract
Metabolomics has been frequently used in pharmacodynamic studies, especially those on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Radix Paeoniae Alba and Radix Paeoniae Rubra are popularly used in TCM, and both have hepatoprotective effects. In this study, a CCl4-induced acute liver injury rat model was established and confirmed by the observed serum aminotransferase activities. The metabolomics approach was applied to study the influence of Radix Paeoniae Alba and Radix Paeoniae Rubra on the metabolic changes in rats with acute liver injury. The partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of rat serum and their ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) fingerprints allowed discrimination of controlled, acute liver injury-model rats after administration of the two types of TCMs. The time-dependent PLS-DA plots showed that the changes in the metabolic patterns of the rats, which were administered with the TCMs, had stabilized within 2 h after they received the intraperitoneal CCl4 injection. The results indicated the protective effect of TCMs against liver injury. Several potential biomarkers were detected and identified, which included creatine, deoxycholic acid, choline, 5-methylenetetrahydrofolate, folic acid, and glycocholic acid. The physiological significance of these metabolic changes was discussed.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest continuously practiced systems of herbal medicines in the world
These activities were still relatively higher than those of the control group (Table 1). These results indicated that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) had excellent hepatoprotective effects against acute liver injury induced by CCl4
A metabolomic method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) and multivariate statistical techniques was developed
Summary
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest continuously practiced systems of herbal medicines in the world. RPR is traditionally used to reduce fever, eliminate stasis, activate blood circulation, and relieve pain directly The latter is the decorticated and boiled dried root of P. lactiflora Pall. Metabolomic analyses, which are based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-MS (LC-MS), have been performed on animal models with CCl4-induced liver injury [15,16]. Several endogenous compounds such as taurine-conjugated bile acids were identified and used as the biomarkers for hepatotoxicity, thereby confirming the potential of metabolomics in hepatotoxicity investigations. Metabolomics was applied for the first time to study the hepatoprotective effects of RPR and RPA against CCl4-induced liver injury using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-MS (UPLC-MS). This study illustrates the effectiveness of these ancient TCMs using modern technology
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