Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2021; 27(40): 6888-6907
Published online Oct 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i40.6888
Metabolomics of Fuzi-Gancao in CCl4 induced acute liver injury and its regulatory effect on bile acid profile in rats
Mo-Fei Wang, Song-Song Zhao, Dil Momin Thapa, Yu-Ling Song, Zheng Xiang
Mo-Fei Wang, Dil Momin Thapa, Yu-Ling Song, The Second Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, Tongliao 028000, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
Song-Song Zhao, Department of Educational Administration, The First Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning Medical University, Jinzhou 121000, Liaoning Province, China
Zheng Xiang, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Xiang Z and Wang MF designed and coordinated the study; Wang MF, Thapa DM, and Song YL performed the experiments and acquired and analyzed the data; Wang MF and Zhao SS wrote the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the article.
Supported by Scientific Research Projects for Higher Education in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, No. NJZZ21027; Support Plan for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiation Plan for Overseas Students in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, No. MOHRSS2020122; Doctoral Start-up Fund of the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, No. MDFY2020001.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experiments conformed to the internationally accepted principles for the care and use of laboratory animals. The study was reviewed and approved by the Liaoning University Research Ethics Committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mo-Fei Wang, PhD, Professor, The Second Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, No. 1742 East Section of Huolinhe Street, Tongliao 028000, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. wangm1228@sina.com
Received: April 17, 2021
Peer-review started: April 17, 2021
First decision: June 23, 2021
Revised: June 28, 2021
Accepted: August 25, 2021
Article in press: August 25, 2021
Published online: October 28, 2021
Processing time: 193 Days and 4.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Fuzi (Radix aconiti lateralis)-Gancao (Radix glycyrrhizae) is one of the most classical drug pairs of traditional Chinese medicine. In clinical practice, decoctions containing Fuzi-Gancao (F-G) are often used in the treatment of liver diseases such as hepatitis and liver failure.

AIM

To investigate the metabolomics of F-G in CCl4 induced acute liver injury in rats and its regulatory effect on the bile acid profile.

METHODS

The pharmacodynamic effect of F-G on CCl4 induced acute liver injury in rats was evaluated, and an ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 92 metabolites from multiple pathways was established to explore the protective metabolic mechanism of F-G in serum on the liver.

RESULTS

Twenty-four differential metabolites were identified in serum samples. The primary bile acid biosynthetic metabolic pathway was the major common pathway in the model group and F-G group. Subsequently, a UPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of 11 bile acids, including cholic acid, ursodeoxycholic acid, glycochenodeoxycholic acid, glycochenodeoxycholic acid, taurocholic acid, glycocholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, deoxycholic acid, taurochenodeoxycholic acid, taurocholic acid, and glycinic acid, was established to analyze the regulatory mechanism of F-G in serum. F-G decreased the contents of these 11 bile acids in serum in a dose-dependent manner compared with those in the model control group.

CONCLUSION

F-G could protect hepatocytes by promoting the binding of free bile acids to glycine and taurine, and reducing the accumulation of free bile acids in the liver. F-G could also regulate the compensatory degree of taurine, decreasing the content of taurine-conjugated bile acids to protect hepatocytes.

Keywords: Radix aconiti lateralis; Radix glycyrrhizae; Liver injury; Metabolites; Bile acid; Fuzi-Gancao

Core Tip: Fuzi-Gancao (F-G) could protect hepatocytes by promoting the binding of free bile acids to glycine and taurine, and reducing the accumulation of free bile acids in the liver. F-G could also regulate the compensatory degree of taurine, decreasing the content of taurine-conjugated bile acids to protect hepatocytes.