Metabolomic Study on the Preventive Effect of Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch on Multipathogen Induced Pelvic Inflammatory Disease in Rats

Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch (PSF), a well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used as a "heat-clearing and detoxifying" agent. The present study was to illustrate the preventive effect of PSF on pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in rats. The PID model was constructed by multipathogen infection of the upper genital tract with reference to the method previously reported. Urine metabolomic analysis was conducted with a GC-MS coupled with derivatization method. In this study, PID rats showed obvious infiltration of inflammatory cells and elevated expression of cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) in upper genital tract, compared with control rats. Sixteen differentiating metabolites contributed to the alteration of metabolic profile in PID rats, including two amino acids, three fat acids, nine organic acids, and two types of sugars. The rats, infected by multipathogen and administered with PSF, showed decreased infiltration of inflammatory cells and lowered expression of cytokines in upper genital tract, compared with PID rats. Meanwhile, PSF intervened in the PID-associated alterations in TCA cycle, sugar metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and other uncertain metabolic pathways. These results indicate that PSF has preventive effect on multipathogen induced PID and holistic interventional effect on disease-associated metabolomic change.