Metabonomic study of biochemical changes in the urine of Morning Glory Seed treated rat

This paper was designed to study metabonomic characters of the nephrotoxicity induced by Morning Glory Seed (MGS), a well-known traditional Chinese medicine which was used for the treatment of edema, simple obesity and lung fever. Urinary samples from control and MGS treated rats were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS) in positive ionization mode. Blood biochemistry and histopathology were examined to identify specific changes of renal damage. The results affirmatively suggested that ethanol extract of Morning Glory Seed (EMGS), instead of water extract of Morning Glory Seed (WMGS), should be responsible for the nephrotoxicity caused by this herbal medicine. The UPLC–MS analysis revealed that the levels of 8 endogenous metabolites as biomarkers were significantly changed in urine from EMGS treated rats. The underlying regulations of EMGS-perturbed metabolic pathways were discussed according to the identified metabolites. The present study proves the potential of UPLC–MS based metabonomics in mapping metabolic response for toxicology.