Abstract: Objective To study the urinary metabolic profile in rats with deep venous thrombosis （DVT） based on metabolomics and to screen out small molecular biomarkers for the diagnosis and forensic identification of DVT. Methods Inferior vena cava of rats was ligated to construct DVT models. The rats were randomly divided into three groups： DVT, sham, and control groups, 10 in each group. The urine of DVT and sham rats was collected during 24 hours in the metabolic cage at 48 hours after operating, meanwhile, 24 hours urine was collected in control group. The metabolic profile was analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance. SIMCA-P 14.1 software was used for pattern recognition. The variable importance in projection （VIP） value from orthogonal PLS-DA （OPLS-DA） model combined with Mann-Whitney U test were used to search the different metabolites in the urine. Results The metabolic profiles of urine from DVT, sham, and control groups had significant differences. The DVT, sham, and control groups could be distinguished by the partial least squares method-discriminant analysis （PLS-DA） model. Compared with the urine of the rats in control groups, the levels of leucine, glutamine, creatine, creatinine and sucrose in the urine of DVT rats were up-regulated, and the levels of 3-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, acetone, α-oxoglutarate, citrate and hippurate were down-regulated. Conclusion The different metabolites in the urine of DVT rats are expected to become its candidate biomarkers. The results can provide a research basis for the diagnosis, treatment and forensic identification of DVT.

Key words: forensic pathology, metabolomics, deep venous thrombosis, nuclear magnetic resonance, pattern recognition, rats, urine