Serum metabonomics of rats irradiated by low-dose γ-rays

Objective　To explore the effect of low-dose γ-rays on the metabolites in rat serum. Methods　Sixteen healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into control group and irradiated group (n=8). The rats in irradiated group were irradiated by 60Co γ-rays with a dose rate of 72mGy/h for 7 days (1 hour per day). At the 7th day after irradiation, blood samples were taken from abdominal aorta to obtain the serum. The metabolic fingerprints of serum were obtained from the two groups of rats, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal signal correction-partial least squares (OSC-PLS) method were used for pattern recognition, and the difference in metabolite profile between two groups was identified by SIMCA-P software. Results　The rat serum 1H NMR spectra revealed a significant difference between control group and irradiated group, the OSC-PLS plots of the serum samples presented marked clustering between two groups. Compared with the control group, the content of lipid, glucose, creatine, glycine/glucose, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, very low density lipoprotein/low density lipoprotein and unsaturated fatty acid increased, while the content of lactic acid, threonine/lipid, alanine, N-acetyl glycoprotein 1, N-acetyl glycoprotein 2, saturated fatty acid and phosphatidyl choline decreased in irradiated group. Conclusion　Irradiation with low-dose γ-ray could induce changes in metabolites in rat serum, concerning mainly immune function, energy metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism and lipid metabolism. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2014.07.02