Urinary metabolomics analysis reveals the effect of volatile oil from Angelica sinensis on LPS-induced inflammation rats.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation occurs commonly and volatile oil from Angelica sinensis (VOAS) can be used as an anti-inflammatory agent. The molecular mechanisms that allow the anti-inflammatory factors to be expressed are still unknown. In this paper, we applied gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q/TOF-MS) based on a metabolomics platform coupled with a network approach to analyze urine samples in three groups of rats: one with LPS-induced inflammation (MI); one with intervention with VOAS; and normal controls (NC). Our study found definite metabolic footprints of inflammation and showed that all three groups of rats, MI, intervention with VOAS and NC have distinct metabolic profiles in urine. The concentrations of 48 metabolites differed significantly among the three groups. The metabolites in urine were screened by the GC-MS and LC-Q/TOF-MS methods. The significantly changed metabolites (p < 0.05, variable importance in projection > 1.5) between MI, NC and VOAS were included in the metabolic networks. Finally, hub metabolites were screened, including glycine, arachidonic acid, l-glutamate, pyruvate and succinate, which have high values of degree (k). the Results suggest that disorders of glycine, arachidonic acid, l-glutamate, pyruvate and succinate metabolism might play an important part in the predisposition and development of LPS-induced inflammation. By applying metabolomics with network methods, the mechanisms of diseases are clearly elucidated.