Laboratory Animal and Comparative Medicine ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5): 586-595.DOI: 10.12300/j.issn.1674-5817.2025.023

• Special Topic on Laboratory Animals for Traditional Chinese Medicine • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress on Animal Models of Perimenopausal Syndrome Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine Disease-Syndrome Combination

LIU Yang1, CHENG Laiyang2, GUO Zhongkun3()()   

  1. 1.Department of Gynecology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250011, China
    2.Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
    3.School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, China
  • Received:2025-02-18 Revised:2025-06-13 Online:2025-10-25 Published:2025-10-23
  • Contact: GUO Zhongkun

Abstract:

Perimenopausal syndrome (PS) is a series of physiological and psychological symptoms occurring in women around menopause due to decreased or fluctuating estrogen levels, including menstrual disorders, hot flashes with sweating, anxiety and depression, headaches and insomnia, which seriously affect their quality of life. Currently, the main treatment methods for PS are menopausal hormone therapy and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy. Among them, menopausal hormone therapy has a rapid onset of effect, but is often restricted by contraindications to hormone therapy and patient acceptance. TCM therapy, through overall regulation and individualized treatment, has unique advantages in improving symptoms such as hot flashes and emotional disorders, and it has high safety, providing an effective alternative for patients who are unwilling or unsuitable to receive menopausal hormone therapy. However, the unclear explanation of the mechanism and weak evidence-based support for TCM treatment of PS and its complications restrict further application in PS. Therefore, construction of a disease-syndrome combined PS animal model that can accurately simulate complex syndrome evolution patterns and systematically analyze multi-target regulatory mechanisms of TCM is particularly important for investigating PS pathogenesis, drug screening and evaluation, and efficacy assessment of TCM compounds, TCM monomers, and acupuncture treatment. This article summarizes and analyzes recent research on TCM disease-syndrome combined PS animal models from three aspects: the etiology, pathogenesis, treatment methods, and effects; the modeling methods and evaluation indicators of PS animal models; and the application of animal models in TCM treatment of PS. It not only provides scientific support for experimental research using PS animal models in future studies, but also helps deepen the understanding of TCM treatment efficacy and action mechanisms for PS.

Key words: Perimenopausal syndrome, Animal models, Traditional Chinese medicine, Combination of disease and syndrome, Ovariectomy

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