title: Metabolic regulatory effects of licorice: a bile acid metabonomic study by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: Licorice is one of the most popular herbal medicines worldwide, and is mainly used to moderate the characteristics of other herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is hypothesized that licorice exerts this role by regulating systemic metabolism. Bile acids play a critical role in lipid digestion and cholesterol metabolism, and are sensitive biomarkers for hepatic function. In this study, the regulatory effects of licorice on bile acid metabonome in rats were investigated using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. After oral administration of a clinical dosage of licorice water extract, the levels of 21 fully identified and 41 tentatively characterized bile acid analogs in rat plasma were determined by a fully validated method. Following partial least squares discriminant analysis, the results showed that licorice treatment led to dose-dependent up-regulation of free and glycine-conjugated bile acids excretion. Particularly, the plasma levels of cholic acid (1465.33±915.93-7156.46±3490.49 ng/mL, p=0.0027) and β-muricholic acid (228.19±163.95-1284.40±775.62 ng/mL, p=0.0045) increased significantly 48 h after administration. As licorice is widely used as a detoxifying drug, the regulation of plasma bile acids may be an important evidence to interpret its mechanism.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bo
authors.forename: Wen-zhi
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chun-fang
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wen-juan
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: De-an
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000378:metabolism*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D006035:Glycyrrhiza; D008297:Male; D055432:Metabolomics; D008517:Phytotherapy; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012015:Reference Standards; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts