Explore the effects of Shidan granules on chronic atrophic gastritis by LC-MS-based plasma metabolomics study.

Abstract

Shidan granule (SDG), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in-hospital preparation, has been demonstrated to exert good effects on chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) in clinic. However, the underlying mechanism of SDG against CAG was still unclear. In this study, an untargeted plasma metabolomics approach was utilized to explore the potential mechanism of SDG in the CAG rats using LC-MS and pattern recognition analysis. The results indicated that SDG could effectively improve the biochemical indexes and pathology features of CAG rats. Nineteen potential biomarkers (VIP > 1 and P < 0.05) contributing to CAG progress were identified. After SDG intervention, seventeen biomarkers were obviously restored back to the normal levels. Further metabolic pathway analysis showed that aspartate and glutamate metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, and TCA cycle were the most related pathways for SDG treatment. Based on the above findings, the main mechanisms of SDG against CAG might be ascribed to the regulatory effects of energy balance, inflammatory suppression, and improvement of disturbed amino acids and lipids metabolism. This study provided available information for the mechanism research of SDG against CAG, and would promote its clinical application.