Ethyl acetate extract of Caesalpinia sappan L. for the treatment of atherosclerosis in ApoE^−/− mice and its mechanism

The ethyl acetate extract of Caesalpinia sappan L. is a traditional Chinese medicine extract commonly used in the treatment of atherosclerosis. However, the mechanism of its use in the treatment of AS is not yet clear, which seriously affects the wide-scale application of this drug. In this study, a combination of metabolomics and lipidomics was used to analyze cardiac tissue to obtain differential metabolites and differential lipid molecules, bioinformatic analysis was performed on the significantly different metabolites and subclass analysis, cluster analysis, and chain length and chain saturation analyses were performed on screened lipid molecules showing significant differences. A correlation network diagram of the screened differential metabolites and differential lipid molecules was constructed. Hematoxylin and eosin staining of thoracic aorta in rats confirmed its therapeutic effect. This study found that the ethyl acetate extract of C. sappan L. upregulates D-mannose through the lysosome pathway, enhances lysosomal function, mediates autophagy, and indirectly regulates the levels of lipid subtypes such as lysophosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylserine, thereby improving AS.