Objective:

2

To investigate the effects of Pinggan Prescription (平肝方

PGP) on hypertension by the associated methods of metabonomic and pharmacodynamic.

Methods:

2

A total of 32 male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were randomly divided into two groups by using the random number table method: a treatment group (

n

=18) and a model group (

n

=14). The Wistar rats (

n

=14) were used as the normal group. Different prescription were used to intervene three groups: the treatment group in which PGP extract was administered orally at a dose of 18.336 g/kg (PGP/body weight)

and the model group in which physiological saline was administered at the equivalent dose. The same treatment was applied to the normal group as the model group. The blood pressure was measured by tail-cuff method

and pharmacodynamic indexes including cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and angiotensinⅡ (Ang Ⅱ) were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The plasma samples from three groups were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Results:

2

Compared with the model group

blood pressure of treatment group was obviously reduced after continuous curing with PGP (

P

<

0.01). The pharmacodynamic results illustrated that the content of Ang Ⅱ increased with the raised blood pressure and the cAMP expressed the converse trend. After curing with PGP

the content of Ang Ⅱ decreased

the difference between model group and treatment group was significant (

P

<

0.01)

and the cAMP expressed the converse trend. Five potential biomarkers were identified

including arachidonic acid

hexadecanoic acid

elaidic acid

octadecanedioic acid and 9

12-octadecadienoic acid. These metabolites had shown significantly changes as followed: arachidonic acid

hexadecanoic acid and elaidic acid were significantly higher and octadecanedioic acid and 9

12-octadecadienoic acid were lowered in the model group than those in the normal group. After the treatment of PGP

the metabolites had the trends of returning to normal along with the reduced blood pressure.

Conclusions:

2

PGP intervention for hypertension played a major role in the metabolism of arachidonic acid and linoleic acid. Metabonomic with pharmacodynamic methods could be potentially powerful tools to investigate the mechanism of Chinese medicine.