Obese rats intervened with Rhizoma coptidis revealed differential gene expression and microbiota by serum metabolomics.

Integrating systems biology is an approach for investigating metabolic diseases in humans. However, few studies use this approach to investigate the mechanism by which Rhizoma coptidis (RC) reduces the effect of lipids and glucose on high-fat induced obesity in rats. Twenty-four specific pathogen-free (SPF) male Sprague–Dawley rats (80 ± 10 g) were used in this study. Serum metabolomics were detected by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. Liver tissue and cecum feces were used for RNA-Seq technology and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, respectively. We identified nine potential biomarkers, which are differential metabolites in the Control, Model and RC groups, including linoleic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, stearic acid, and L-Alloisoleucine (p < 0.01). The liver tissue gene expression profile indicated the circadian rhythm pathway was significantly affected by RC (Q ≤ 0.05). A total of 149 and 39 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), which were highly associated with biochemical indicators and potential biomarkers in the cecum samples (FDR ≤ 0.05), respectively, were identified. This work provides information to better understand the mechanism of the effect of RC intervention on hyperlipidemia and hypoglycemic effects in obese rats. The present study demonstrates that integrating systems biology may be a powerful tool to reveal the complexity of metabolic diseases in rats intervened by traditional Chinese medicine. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12906-021-03382-3.

系统生物学整合是一种研究人类代谢性疾病的方法。然而，很少有研究使用这种方法来探究黄连（RC）降低脂质和葡萄糖对高脂诱导的大鼠肥胖影响的机制。 本研究使用了24只无特定病原体（SPF）的雄性Sprague - Dawley大鼠（80 ± 10克）。采用超高效液相色谱 - 四极杆 - 飞行时间串联质谱法检测血清代谢组学。肝脏组织和盲肠粪便分别用于RNA - Seq技术和16S rRNA基因测序。 我们鉴定出9种潜在的生物标志物，它们是对照组、模型组和黄连组中的差异代谢物，包括亚油酸、二十碳五烯酸、花生四烯酸、硬脂酸和L - 别异亮氨酸（p < 0.01）。肝脏组织基因表达谱表明，黄连显著影响昼夜节律通路（Q ≤ 0.05）。在盲肠样本中，分别鉴定出149个和39个与生化指标和潜在生物标志物高度相关的操作分类单元（OTUs）（FDR ≤ 0.05）。 这项工作为更好地理解黄连干预对肥胖大鼠高血脂和降糖作用的机制提供了信息。本研究表明，系统生物学整合可能是揭示中药干预大鼠代谢性疾病复杂性的有力工具。 网络版包含补充材料，可在10.1186/s12906 - 021 - 03382 - 3获取。