[Methodology and purposes of establishing mouse and rat models for syndrome differentiation and treatment]

Methodology of syndrome differentiation and syndrome-based treatment in rats and mice has professional characteristics and caters to the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In this paper, the authors introduced their systematic research in five aspects. 1) Rats and mice can be used to simulate TCM clinical practice. Diagnosis and syndrome differentiation can be done to the rats and mice, and information collected by the four diagnostic methods from the experimental animals meets the requirements of treatment based on syndrome differentiation. 2) Standardized and quantified four diagnostic methods and syndrome differentiation for rats and mice can be established, and are operational and applicable for general use. 3) There exists constitution and syndrome diversity in normal rats and mice. A spontaneous syndrome can develop in diseased rats and mice, and it can be accompanied by or even change to another syndrome, similar to that in human beings. 4) There is a complicated material base for syndromes inferred from the different gene expressions and splices in neuroendocrine-immune network. 5) Individualized treatment based on syndrome differentiation, as well as quantified evaluation and comparison of the treatment efficacy can be done in the rat and mouse models of syndromes. The established methodology and criteria for syndrome differentiation and syndrome-based treatment in rats and mice can be used in the following four research fields: 1) syndrome identification on rat or mouse models; 2) research on the basic theories of TCM, such as the research on the viscera manifestation theory, the material base of syndromes, function mechanisms of the treatment based on syndrome differentiation, and the diagnostics of TCM; 3) study in clinical subject of TCM, such as evaluation and comparison of the efficacy of treatment based on syndrome differentiation, protocol optimization of syndrome differentiation and treatment, and preventive treatment of diseases; 4) study in traditional Chinese drugs, such as the research on properties of Chinese herbal drugs, and pharmacological research on Chinese herbal medicines and formulas.