Metabolic regulatory variations in rats due to acute cold stress & intervention: high resolution 1H NMR approach

Acute cold stress may trigger systemic biochemical and physiological changes in the living organisms, which leads to rapid loss of homeostasis. These changes may reverse due to self-regulatory mechanism of the organism or by the intervention of suitable medication in the form of herbs. The present study was undertaken to assess the alterations in metabolites levels arising due to acute cold stress and to monitor the restoration of these changes by suitable herb intervention. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to acute cold stress of -10A degrees C for 3 h and urine samples were collected and analyzed by NMR spectroscopy in conjugation with Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The study revealed highly significant biochemical changes in urinary metabolites and also demonstrated the protective effects of (Tc) extract on the stressed rats. These changes suggest the involvement of various metabolic pathways such as Tricarboxylic Acid (TCA) cycle, gut microbiota, renal function, catecholamines and muscle metabolism in the metabolic alterations induced by cold stress and the compensation required to restore homeostasis. The present study forms the basis of future studies to establish potential biomarkers for cold stress in humans and lay down the optimum dosage of Tc to be administered for providing immunity to the body as prophylactic and mitigating agent against environmental insult such as cold stress.