Investigations into metabonomic profiling of spontaneously hypertensive Rat (SHR) and metabolic effects of total ginsenoside on SHR using GC/MS

Aim: To investigate the metabolic profiling of SHR and fifteen WKY as well as metabolic effects of total ginsenoside (TG) on SHR using GC/MS. Methods: Fifteen male SHR and WKY aged 12 weeks were housed to fit the new environment for 2 weeks. After that, blood pressures were measured using a tail-cuff method just before plasma collection. Metabolic profiles for SHR and WKY were acquired using GC/MS. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were applied to these complex GC/MS data to facilitate differentiation and determine metabolic differences between plasma samples collected from hypertensive and normotensive rats. Consequently, 15 SHR were randomly divided into 3 groups with 5 SHR each, which were treated with TG, 0.5% CMC, for 8 weeks and with Captopril (CAP) (100 mg·kg·d^-1) for 4 weeks. Then blood pressures were measured and metabolic profiles were acquired using GC/MS. Results: The Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of SHR were significantly higher than those of WKY. Using PCA and PLS-DA, it is also possible to distinguish them in the principal components score plot. In SHR, the plasma levels of hexadecanoic acid, galactapyranoside, octadecadienoic acid and butanoic acid were found to be higher. Compared with control SHR, the SBP and DBP were significantly reduced in CAP treated SHR (P < 0.01), and slightly reduced in TG treated SHR. But the metabolic profiles of SHR treated with TG were becoming normal. Conclusion: GC/MS is a promising approach to provide the information on metabolic changes related to the pathophysiological processes of the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Treated with TG for a long period, the pathophysiological processes of SHRs could be partially improved.