Metabolomics Study With Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry for Predicting Valproic Acid–induced Hepatotoxicity and Discovery of Novel Biomarkers in Rat Urine

Three different doses of valproic acid (20, 100, and 500 mg/kg/d) are administered orally to Sprague-Dawley rats for 5 days, and the feasibility of metabolomics with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry as a predictor of the hepatotoxicity of valproic acid is evaluated. Body weight is found to decrease with the 100-mg/kg/d dose and significantly decrease with the 500-mg/kg/d dose. Mean excreted urine volume is lowest in the 500-mg/kg/d group among all groups. The plasma level of α-glutathione-S-transferase, a sensitive and earlier biomarker for hepatotoxicity, increases significantly with administration of 100 and 500 mg/kg/d; however, there is not a significant difference in α-glutathione-S-transferase plasma levels between the control and 20-mg/kg/d groups. Clusters in partial least squares discriminant analysis score plots show similar patterns, with changes in physiological conditions and plasma levels of α-glutathione-S-transferase; the cluster for the control and 20-mg/kg/d groups does not clearly separate, but the clusters are separate for 100- and 500-mg/kg/d groups. A biomarker of hepatotoxicity, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and octanoylcarnitine, is identified from nontargeted and targeted metabolic profiling. These results validate that metabolic profiling using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry could be a useful tool for finding novel biomarkers. Thus, a nontargeted metabolic profiling method is established to evaluate the hepatotoxicity of valproic acid and demonstrates proof-of-concept that metabolomic approach with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry has great potential for predicting valproic acid–induced hepatotoxicity and discovering novel biomarkers.