Metabonomic study on the biochemical profiles of a hydrocortisone-induced animal model.

This work describes the metabonomic study of a biochemical modification in vivo induced by high dose of hydrocortisone, which led to a unique pathologic condition similar to the 'kidney deficiency syndromes', an early stage of obesity and diabetes in traditional Chinese medicine. The methodology of the metabonomic approach consisted of GC/MS and multivariate statistical technique for the establishment of urine metabolic patterns of the treatment rats. In the study, 24-h urine was collected pre-dose and at days 1, 3, 7, and 10 post-dose after rats were injected with hydrocortisone at 1.5 mg/100 g. The acquired data were transferred into Matlab to be processed using principal components analysis (PCA). The results indicated that clear and consistent biochemical changes following hydrocortisone intervention under controlled conditions could be identified using chemometric analysis. The work suggests that this metabonomic approach could be used as a potentially powerful tool to investigate the biochemical changes of certain physiopathologic conditions such as metabolic syndrome, as an early diagnostic means.