Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2017; 23(31): 5713-5721
Published online Aug 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i31.5713
Metabolomic profiling for identification of metabolites and relevant pathways for taurine in hepatic stellate cells
Xin Deng, Xing-Qiu Liang, Fei-Guo Lu, Xiao-Fang Zhao, Lei Fu, Jian Liang
Xin Deng, Xing-Qiu Liang, Fei-Guo Lu, Xiao-Fang Zhao, Lei Fu, Jian Liang, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruikang Hospital Affiliated to Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning 541100, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Deng X performed the majority of experiments and analyzed the data; Liang XQ wrote the paper; Lu FG, Zhao XF and Fu L participated equally in the culture and treatment of hepatic stellate cells; Liang J designed and coordinated the research.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81360595 and No. 81360532; Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program, No. 2014GXNSFDA118027; Bagui Scholars Foundation Program of Guangxi; and Special-term Experts Foundation Program of Guangxi.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Ruikang Hospital Affiliated to Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine.
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Jian Liang, MD, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruikang Hospital Affiliated to Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, No. 10 Huadong Road, Nanning 541100, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. dr_jianliang@163.com
Telephone: +86-771-2639080 Fax: +86-771-2639080
Received: March 6, 2017
Peer-review started: March 7, 2017
First decision: April 17, 2017
Revised: June 11, 2017
Accepted: June 19, 2017
Article in press: June 19, 2017
Published online: August 21, 2017
Processing time: 165 Days and 17.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: At the cellular level, it is reported that the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in the subendothelial space may result in hepatic fibrosis. Although taurine was found to increase HSC apoptosis significantly, its molecular mechanisms are still unknown. This study developed a reliable and simple method to identify important biological metabolites and relevant pathways for taurine in HSCs, in order to provide more data for taurine therapy. We found that there were distinct changes in the biological metabolites of taurine in HSCs, and identified three differential metabolic pathways that might be of key importance in mediating the mechanism of action of taurine in HSCs.