In vivo metabolic study on combination of tanshinone IIA, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone I in zebrafish / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the in vivo metabolism of the combination of tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA), cryptotanshinone (Cry), and tanshinone I (Tan I) in zebrafish and discuss the possibility and rationality of using zebrafish in multi-component metabolism of Chinese materia medica (CMM). Methods: The zebrafish was exposed to the 1% DMSO solution of the combinations with Tan IIA, Cry, and Tan I. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion-trap mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) method was used to calculate the relative molecular weight of the metabolites based on the excimer ion peak. The metabolites in solution and zebrafish after the combination being exposed to zebrafish for 24 h were identified through comparing with the literature data and reference substances. Results: After the combination being exposed to zebrafish, hydroxylation and dehydrogenation products of Tan IIA and Cry were obtained while the metabolites of Tan I was not found. Conclusion: The metabolic mechanism of zebrafish against the combination highly consists with those in rats or rat liver microsomes, which indicates that the metabolism of zebrafish against the combination is rational with the advantages of less amount of compound, lower cost, simpler operation, and higher efficiency. The above results provide the reference for using zebrafish in the metabolic study on complex CMM system.