The application of nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics to the dominant–submissive rat behavioral model

Manifestations of domination: Assessments of social dominance in rodents

Social hierarchies are ubiquitous features of virtually all animal groups. The varying social ranks of members within these groups have profound effects on both physical and emotional health, with lower-ranked individuals typically being the most adversely affected by their respective ranks. Thus, reliable measures of social dominance in preclinical rodent models are necessary to better understand the effects of an individual's social rank on other behaviors and physiological processes. In this review, we outline the primary methodologies used to assess social dominance in various rodent species: those that are based on analyses of agonistic behaviors, and those that are based on resource competition. In synthesizing this review, we conclude that assays based on resource competition may be better suited to characterize social dominance in a wider variety of rodent species and strains, and in both males and females. Lastly, albeit expectedly, we demonstrate that similarly to many other areas of preclinical research, studies incorporating female subjects are lacking in comparison to those using males. These findings emphasize the need for an increased number of studies assessing social dominance in females to form a more comprehensive understanding of this behavioral phenomenon.

Metabolomics, a New Promising Technology for Toxicological Research

Metabolomics which deals with the biological metabolite profile produced in the body and its relation to disease state is a relatively recent research area for drug discovery and biological sciences including toxicology and pharmacology. Metabolomics, based on analytical method and multivariate analysis, has been considered a promising technology because of its advantage over other toxicogenomic and toxicoproteomic approaches. The application of metabolomics includes the development of biomarkers associated with the pathogenesis of various diseases, alternative toxicity tests, high-throughput screening (HTS), and risk assessment, allowing the simultaneous acquisition of multiple biochemical parameters in biological samples. The metabolic profile of urine, in particular, often shows changes in response to exposure to xenobiotics or disease-induced stress, because of the biological system's attempt to maintain homeostasis. In this review, we focus on the most recent advances and applications of metabolomics in toxicological research.

Metabonomic study on ageing: NMR-based investigation into rat urinary metabolites and the effect of the total flavone of Epimedium

The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of ageing on rat urinary metabolites and to evaluate the anti-ageing effects of the total flavone of Epimedium (TFE). Proton nuclear magnetic resonance based metabonomic analyses was performed on urine from rats aged 4, 10, 18 and 24 months, and rats administered with TFE. By multivariate analysis, 26 characteristic resonances were found to be highly related with the age of rats, and ten of them were structurally postulated as creatinine, lactate, alanine, acetate, acetone, succinate, allantoin, methylamine, dimethylamine and trimethylamine-N-oxide; these metabolites involve creatinine metabolites, aliphatic amines metabolites and some important intermediates or end products of energy metabolism. Principal components analysis revealed that the metabolic profiles of 24-month-old rats treated with TFE closely resembled those of rats aged 18 months. In addition, most of these characteristic resonances were reset to younger levels by TFE intervention. The result suggests that TFE administration can markedly influence the ageing process and shows anti-ageing effects, which might due to the melioration of pyruyate metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation.