Application of ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to metabonomic study on spontaneously hypertensive rats and intervention effects of Ping Gan prescription.

This study describes the metabonomic characters of the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and intervention effects of Ping Gan prescription. Ultra performance LC coupled with Q-TOF MS (UPLC/MS-Q-TOF) was employed to develop a metabonomic method of the plasma of SHR. There was a significant difference in metabolic profiling observed between predose group of Wistar Kyoto rats and model group (SHR) by using the principal components analysis (PCA). Some significant changes in metabolites such as LysoPC(22:6), LysoPC(20:4), LysoPC(18:1), cholylglycine, PE(P-16:0e/0:0), sphingosine-1-phosphate, and 2-oxo-4-methylthio butanoic acid were identified. These biochemical changes were associated with the disturbance in sphingolipid metabolism and fat metabolism, which would be helpful to further understand the essence of hypertension and the therapeutic mechanism of Ping Gan prescription. This study suggests that the metabonomic method may be a valuable and feasible tool to explore the therapeutic effect and mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).