UPLC-Q-TOF/MS based metabolomic profiling of serum and urine of hyperlipidemic rats induced by high fat diet

Hyperlipidemia is considered to be a high lipid level in blood, can induce metabolic disorders and dysfunctions of the body, and results in some severe complications. Therefore, hunting for some metabolite markers and clarifying the metabolic pathways in vivo will be an important strategy in the treatment and prevention of hyperlipidemia. In this study, a rat model of hyperlipidemia was constructed according to histopathological data and biochemical parameters, and the metabolites of serum and urine were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS. Combining pattern recognition and statistical analysis, 19 candidate biomarkers were screened and identified. These changed metabolites indicated that during the development and progression of hyperlipidemia, energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and nucleotide metabolism were mainly disturbed, which are reported to be closely related to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. This study demonstrated that a UPLC-Q-TOF/MS based metabolomic approach is useful to profile the alternation of endogenous metabolites of hyperlipidemia.