RESUMO
Hyperlipidemia is a common disease with abnormal blood lipids and is an important risk factor for various cardiovascular diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine has the advantages of dependable lipid-lowering effects with few side effects and is widely used in the prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia in China. However, due to the complex composition of traditional Chinese medicine and the many targets for treating hyperlipidemia, the mechanisms by which these medicines lower lipid levels are not well resolved. Lipidomics is a discipline that studies lipids and the interaction of lipids in biological systems. Lipidomics can identify and quantify the lipids in vivo under physiological and pathological conditions, helping to discover the potential biomarkers related to the lipid-lowering effects of traditional Chinese medicine and providing a basis for systematically studying the lipid-lowering effect of traditional Chinese medicine. This review introduces the principal research methods used in lipidomics and summarizes the results and prospects of application of lipidomics in the research on the lipid-lowering effects of traditional Chinese medicine.