Proteomic analysis of functional dyspepsia in stressed rats treated with traditional Chinese medicine "Wei Kangning"

Background and Aim: Chinese traditional medical science is generally used as a therapeutic method against functional dyspepsia (FD) in China. Although great effort is made to understand the pharmaceutical mechanisms of Chinese traditional medicine, such as typical traditional Chinese medicine, Wei Kangning, there are still many mysteries to be uncovered. Methods: The model of FD was established by stimulating rats via tail damping and the rats were treated with traditional Chinese medicine, Wei Kangning. The proteins of the rat gastrointestinal tissues were extracted and run by 2-DE, then the differential proteins were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry and validated with Western blotting or fluorescent quantitation polymerase chain reaction. Results: A total of 228 unique proteins in FD model rats were detected with significant changes in their expression levels corresponding with traditional Chinese medicine, Wei Kangning, administration. Twenty-eight of these proteins were identified, which are involved in many biological functions, such as organism antioxidant enzymes, energy metabolism, glutathione S-transferase, pi2, superoxide dismutase 2 and alpha-enolase and so on. Conclusions: These proteomic results presented therefore provide additional support to the hypothesis that glutathione S-transferase, pi2, superoxide dismutase 2, a-enolase and voltage-dependent anion channel are the targets of FD treated with traditional Chinese medicine, Wei Kangning.