Opportunities of high-technology phenotyping by the NMR spectroscopy method by example of the metabolic response of the rat liver to the effect of alcohol and Reishi

The metabolic profiling of the rat liver was carried out in order to estimate the efficiency of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy as a method of metabolomic phenotyping and a method of detecting early metabolic changes during toxic effects. The tissue samples were taken from three groups of rats: group C, control animals; group A, animals that repeatedly received 15% alcohol solution (its intake induced no pathological liver changes, but stimulated the proliferation of the hepatocytes); and group A + R, alcohol in combination with the plant hepatoprotective Reishi preparation (Ganoderma lucidum). As follows from the results obtained, the changes in the metabolite concentration in liver (observed in group A) reflected the typical metabolic reaction to the alcohol intake and were expressed in a decrease in the content of glycine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, choline, and lactate, as well as in an increase in the TMAO level. The concentration of glycine, valine, and TMAO was restored in the rats of group A + R during the Reishi intake. In addition, an increase in the concentrations of NAD, ATP, UTP, succinate, pyranose, and acetate was registered in group A + R relative to the control. Individual variations in the content of valine, isoleucine, leucine, lactate, choline, and pyranose is correlated to the number of binuclear hepatocytes (as an indicator of proliferative activity). Thus, the study of liver tissues by 1H NMR spectroscopy method allows us to detect early deviations in the level of metabolites during chronic consumption of small alcohol doses and can be a promising approach both for diagnostic detection of alcoholic liver damage and for estimation of the efficiency of the applied drug therapy.