Metabonomics-based omics study and atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis results from dyslipidemia and systemic inflammation, associated with the strong metabolism and interaction between diet and disease. Strategies based on the global profiling of metabolism would be important to define the mechanisms involved in pathological alterations. Metabonomics is the quantitative measurement of the dynamic multiparametric metabolic response of living systems to pathophysiological stimuli or genetic modification. Metabonomics has been used in combination with proteomics and transcriptomics as the part of a systems biology description to understand the genome interaction with the development of atherosclerosis. The present review describes the application of metabonomics to explore the potential role of metabolic disturbances and inflammation in the initiation and development of atherosclerosis. Metabonomics-based omics study offers a new potential for biomarker discovery by disentangling the impacts of diet, environment and lifestyle.