Characteristics of serum bile acids among healthy children in Zhejiang province / 中华儿科杂志

Objective: To characterize the serum bile acid profiles of healthy children in Zhejiang Province. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 245 healthy children who underwent imaging and laboratory biochemical tests during routine physical examinations at the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2020 to July 2022. Overnight fasting venous blood samples were collected, and the concentrations of 18 individual bile acids in the serum were accurately quantitated using tandem mass spectrometry. The concentration difference of bile acid were compared between different genders and to explore the correlation between age and bile acid levels. Used the Mann-Whitney U test for intergroup comparison and Spearman test to correlation analysis. Results: A total of 245 health children with a age of 10 (8, 12) years including 125 boys and 120 girls. There were no significant differences in levels of total bile acids, primary and secondary bile acids, free and conjugated bile acids between the two gender groups (all P>0.05). The serum concentrations of ursodeoxycholic acid and glycoursodeoxycholic acid in girls were significantly higher than those in boys (199.0 (66.9, 276.5) vs. 154.7 (49.3, 205.0) nmol/L, 274.0 (64.8, 308.0) vs. 181.0 (43.8, 209.3) nmol/L, Z=2.06, 2.71, both P<0.05). The serum taurolithocholic acid in both boys and girls were positively correlated with age (r=0.31, 0.32, both P<0.05). The serum chenodeoxycholic acid and glycochenodeoxycholic acid in the boys group were positively correlated with age (r=0.20, 0.23, both P<0.05), whereas the serum tauroursodeoxycholic acid in the girls group was negatively correlated with age (r=-0.27, P<0.05), and the serum cholic acid was positively correlated with age (r=0.34, P<0.05). Conclusions: The total bile acid levels are relatively stable in healthy children in Zhejiang province. However, individual bile acids showed gender differences and were correlated with age.

Intervention effects of Astragalus saponins on spleen deficiency syndrome rats based on metabonomic research / 中草药

Objective: Effect of Astragalus saponins on the changes of endogenous metabolites in plasma of rats with spleen deficiency syndrome of dampness and the intervention function of Astragalus Radix saponins on the syndrome was studied. Methods: High performance liquid phase of flight time mass spectrometry was used to detect the information of endogenous metabolites in rat plasma, principal component analysis and partial least-squares discriminate analysis were used to study the metabolic differences between normal group, model group, and astragalus saponins group to identify potential biomarkers. Results: The metabolism pattern of normal group, model group, and Astragalus saponin group were significantly different, 11 biomarkers were identified and the pathway mainly involved glycerol phospholipids metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, pentose glucuronic acid conversion, and peanut arachidonic acid metabolism. Conclusion: The results of this study show that it is possible for Astragalus Radix saponins group to interfere with the spleen deficiency syndrome of dampness by regulating energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, and fatty acid metabolism to exert therapeutic effect.