ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Renal Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1586581
This article is part of the Research TopicEmerging Applications of Targeted and Non-Targeted Metabolomics to Physiology and PathophysiologyView all 10 articles
Metabolomic profiling in a rat model of visual fatigue associated with liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome
Provisionally accepted
- 1Amway (Shanghai) Innovation & Science Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
- 2Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- 3School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- 4School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- 5Amway (Shanghai) Innovation & Science Co., Ltd., Amway (China) R&D Center Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
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Background: Visual fatigue, commonly attributed to excessive eye use or dry conditions, is traditionally associated with deficiencies in liver and kidney yin in Chinese medicine. However, its metabolic aspects remain largely unexplored. Methods: Levothyroxine sodium combined with tail-clip stimulation induced a rat model of visual fatigue with liver and kidney yin deficiency. At 3 (M1), 7 (M2) and 14 (M3) days after induction, histopathological changes were observed, and metabolic profiling was completed using untargeted UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap/MS.Results: The rats exhibited signs of liver and kidney yin deficiency and visual fatigue on days 3 and 7, respectively. Compared to the control group, we identified 127 and 96 differential metabolites in the serum on days 7 and 14, respectively, primarily lipids and organic nitrogen compounds. Moreover, we observed disruptions in sphingolipid metabolism and signaling pathways.Conclusion: This study enriches our understanding of the metabolic profile associated with liver-kidney-yin deficiency type visual fatigue.
Keywords: Visual fatigue, Liver and kidney yin deficiency, Uhplc-q-exactive orbitrap/ms, Metabolomics, Signaling Pathways
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Liu, Huang, Chen, Zhu, Zhang, Du and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liang Chen, Amway (Shanghai) Innovation & Science Co., Ltd., Amway (China) R&D Center Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
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