This study aimed to examine the changes in lipid and metabolite profiles of ovariectomized (OVX) rats with diet-induced metabolic syndrome-associated osteoarthritis (MetOA) after supplementation with greenshell mussel (GSM) using an untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics approach. Ninety-six rats were fed with one of four diets: control, control supplemented with GSM + GSM, high fat/high sugar (HFHS), or high fat/high sugar enriched with GSM (HFHS + GSM). After 8 weeks on experimental diets, half of the rats in each group underwent OVX and the other half were sham operated. After being fed for an additional 28 weeks, blood samples were collected for the metabolomics analysis. Lipid and polar metabolites were extracted from plasma and analysed by LC-MS. We identified 29 lipid species from four lipid subclasses (phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylcholine, diacylglycerol, and triacylglycerol) and a set of eight metabolites involved in amino acid metabolism (serine, threonine, lysine, valine, histidine, pipecolic acid, 3-methylcytidine, and cholic acid) as potential biomarkers for the effect of HFHS diet and GSM supplementation. GSM incorporation more specifically in the control diet generated significant alterations in the levels of several lipids and metabolites. Further studies are required to validate these findings that identify potential biomarkers to follow OA progression and to monitor the impact of GSM supplementation.
Keywords: diet-induced obese rats; lipidomic; metabolic dysregulation; metabolomics; osteoarthritis.