OBJECTIVETo study the influence of aconite root, a Chinese medicinal herb with hot property, on energy metabolism and gene expression spectrum, and to analyze the possible mechanism of it effect.

METHODThirty two SPF Wistar rats were randomly divided into aconite root group and control group. Decoction of aconite root and NS were intragastrically administrated with the concentration of 10 mL x kg(-1) respectively once a day for 20 days. Temperature, energy intake (EI), digestive energy (DE) and metabolic energy (ME) were measured. The activity of ATPase and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) in liver was detected by colorimetry. The gene expression of liver was detected with Illumina's rat ref-12 gene array. The differential expression genes were selected, annotated and classified based on gene ontology (GO). Real-time quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (Q-RT-PCR) was used to test the accuracy of the array results.

RESULTCompared with the control group, the toe temperature (TT) on the 10th and 20th day after the administration,the EI/BM( body mass), DE/BM, ME/BM and the activity of Na+ - K+ - ATPase, Ca2+ - Mg2+ - ATPase and SDH of liver in the aconite root group increased significantly (P<0.05). There were 592 differential expression genes in aconite root group compared with the control group. Based on Go analysis, the most significant genes was related to metabolic process (lgP = - 15.5897).

CONCLUSIONAconite root could improve the energy metabolism in rats, by influencing the metabolic process of sugar, lipid and amino acid, which may be the main molecular mechanism of warming yang and dispelling cold for the treatment of the cold syndrome according to Chinese medicine theory.