Urine metabolic profile changes of CCl4-liver fibrosis in rats and intervention effects of Yi Guan Jian Decoction using metabonomic approach

Abstract

BackgroundYi Guan Jian Decoction (YGJD), a famous Chinese prescription, has long been employed clinically to treat liver fibrosis. However, as of date, there is no report on the effects of YGJD from a metabonomic approach. In this study, a urine metabonomic method based on gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was employed to study the protective efficacy and metabolic profile changes caused by YGJD in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver fibrosis.MethodsUrine samples from Wistar rats of three randomly divided groups (control, model, and YGJD treated) were collected at various time-points, and the metabolic profile changes were analyzed by GC/MS with principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA). Furthermore, histopathology and biochemical examination were also carried out to ensure the success of CCl4-induced liver fibrosis model.ResultsUrine metabolic profile studies suggested distinct clustering of the three groups, and YGJD group was much closer to the control group by showing a tendency of recovering towards the control group. Fourteen significantly changed metabolites were found, and YGJD treatment could reverse the levels of these metabolites to normal levels or close to normal levels.ConclusionsThe current study indicates that the YGJD has significant anti-fibrotic effects on CCl4-induced liver fibrosis in rats, which might be by regulating the dysfunction of energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, cytochrome P450 metabolism, and gut microflora metabolism. The metabonomic approach can be recommended to study the pharmacological effect and mechanism of complex Chinese medicines.

Evaluation of methanolic extract of Phragmites karka on carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis in rat

“…In line with previously reported study (Gou et al, 2013;Kew C, 2000), administration of CCl4 led to hepatocyte destruction and increased levels of ALT, AST, and GGT in the serum of rats, which were reversed by treatment with the leaf and rhizome extract. Also, in line with earlier observation carried out by (Mohammed et al, 2016), CCl4 treatment caused profound induction of the mRNA levels of TGF , -SMA and collagen genes which were repressed on treatment with both extracts.…”

GC–MS combined with chemometric techniques for the quality control and original discrimination of Curcumae longae rhizome: Analysis of essential oils

“…Then, a sevenfold cross‐validation was used to estimate the robustness and the predictive ability of the established discrimination model , and the values of R 2 Y and Q 2 Y were 0.922 and 0.721, respectively, which were stable and good to fitness and prediction. A permutation test was proceeded in order to further validate the discrimination model and the R 2 and Q 2 intercept values were 0.427 and −0.427 after 200 permutations. The negative values of the Q 2 intercept indicated the robustness of the established model, and thus show a low risk of over fitting and reliable (Fig.…”

Metabolic characterization of the early stage of hepatic fibrosis in rat using GC‐TOF/MS and multivariate data analyses

“…Metabolite profiling has enormous potential for the characterization of pathological states in animals and humans, as well as providing diagnostic information and presenting mechanistic insight into biochemical effects of drugs (Yao et al, ). Currently, a number of analytical methods, including NMR, HPLC/MS and GC/MS, are used to complete metabonomic research (Gou et al, ). Among these analytical techniques, the GC/MS method has been proved to be a robust, unbiased method for identifying and quantifying metabolites with high sensitivity, reproducibility, simplicity and National Institute of Standards and Technology database accessibility, and has gained increased implementation recently in performing the global metabolic profiles (Xiong et al, ).…”