[Progress on lipidomics analytical methods and their applications in studies of traditional Chinese medicines].

Lipids have been documented to play comprehensive and significant role in many biological processes. As a branch of metabolomics,lipidomics research mainly involves the analysis of the variation of lipid metabolism profiles under different physiologic,pathologic conditions or drug intervention,the discovery of key lipid biomarkers of a disease in lipid metabolic networks,and the study of the mechanism of action of lipid metabolic regulation during disease onset and progression,and drug treatment. Traditional Chinese medicines( TCMs)are characterized with integrated effects by multi-components,multi-targets and integrated effects. It is urgent to develop methods suitable for the study of complex TCMs to reveal the active constituents and integrated mechanism of action. Systems biology such as lipidomics provides valuable strategy and approach to illustrate the complex mechanisms of TCMs. In this paper,in order to provide technical references for TCMs,we have reviewed the analytical techniques applied in lipidomics and the applications of lipidomics in TCMs researches.

Salvia miltiorrhiza Lipophilic Fraction Attenuates Oxidative Stress in Diabetic Nephropathy through Activation of Nuclear Factor Erythroid 2-Related Factor 2.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common cause of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, which can be triggered by oxidative stress. In this study, we investigated the renoprotective effect of the ethyl acetate extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza (EASM) on DN and examined the underlying molecular mechanism. We observed that EASM treatment attenuated metabolic abnormalities associated with hyperglycemic conditions in the experimental DN model. In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced mice, EASM treatment reduced albuminuria, improved renal function and alleviated the pathological alterations within the glomerulus. To mimic the hyperglycemic conditions in DN patients, we used high glucose (25[Formula: see text]mmol/L) media to stimulate mouse mesangial cells (MMCs), and EASM inhibited high glucose-induced reactive oxygen species. We also observed that EASM enhanced the expression of nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which mediated the anti-oxidant response, and its downstream gene heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H quinone dehydrogenase 1 (NQO1) with concomitant decrease of expression of kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (keap1) both in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, these results suggest that EASM alleviates the progression of DN and this might be associated with activation of Nrf2.