Abstract: The swinging-induced metabolomic changes of theabrownins (TB) extracted from Pu-erh tea in the serum of rats fed with a high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt diet were investigated by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). An NMR-based metabolomic approach was used to analyze the NMR spectra of sera from 14 rat groups. Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to analyze the obtained metabolites in the comparison of chemical constitutes from different groups. The results showed that before swinging, the relative contents of isoleucine, leucine, valine and 3- hydroxybutyrate decreased significantly in serum from the metabolic syndrome (MS) model group (P < 0.05) compared with the normal control group, while the relative contents of alanine, N-acetyl-glycoprotein, glutamic acid, dimethylglycine (DMG), betaine, taurine, arginine, glycogen, glycerol increased significantly (P < 0.05). After swinging, compared with the MS model group, the relative content of 3-hydroxybutyrate in the high-dose TB group increased significantly (P < 0.05), while low density lipoprotein/very low density lipoprotein (LDL/VLDL) ratio and the relative contents of lactic acid, alanine and arginine decreased significantly (P < 0.05). After swinging, the relative contents of serum HDL, isoleucine and 3-hydroxybutyrate in the normal control group significantly increased (P < 0.05), while the relative contents of dimethylglycine (DMG), arginine, glycogen, and α-glucose were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). For the MS model group, LDL/VLDL ratio and the relative content of isoleucine in serum decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after swinging, while the relative contents of alanine and lactic acid increased significantly (P < 0.05). The metabolomic results demonstrated that swinging could significantly reduce the level of serum LDL/VLDL ratio and increase HDL level, and effectively promote blood glucose metabolism. Swinging and TB have a synergistic effect in rats with MS, and have great potential in the prevention of metabolic syndromes and cardiovascular diseases.

Key words: swinging, Pu-erh tea theabrownins, metabolomics, metabolic syndromes, rats