稳态作为中医“证”研究的新思路的依据和意义

稳态是控制系统的关键特征,在生物体系中广泛存在,如个体发育过程中形成的不同细胞类型、环境饮食因素作用下形成的新生物性状、药物成瘾、长期记忆形成等。参与稳态形成的机制常有表观遗传修饰、长半衰期物质形成、正反馈环路形成、干细胞激活等。中医"证"的研究引入稳态概念,实质上是探讨量变导致质变的机制;也使我们重新考虑"证候"动物模型的典型时间窗口和什么是中药改善"证"的核心效应。稳态概念既符合中医的理论特色,也符合现代系统论和生物学的进展,希望能对"证"的研究起到推动作用。

The Reliance and Significance of Stability as a New Way to Reveal the Essence of Syndrome in Chinese Medicine

Stability is the important feature of the control system.Stability exists extensively in the biological systems such as different cell types during the process of individual development,new biological properties formed under the environment and/or diet factors,drug addition,long-term memory formation,and so on.The underlying mechanisms generally include epigenetical modification,the emergence of certain substance with long half life,the formation of positive feedback loop,and the activation of stem cells.Introduction of stability into researches of Chinese medicine syndrome is essentially to explore the mechanisms of quantitative changes into the qualitative alternation.It is also helpful for us to choose an appropriate time window of animal models for Chinese syndrome and to consider what are the core effects of Chinese materia medica in improving syndrome.The stability not only meets the features of Chinese medicine theories,but also agrees with the progress of modern systems theory and biology.We hope it could promote studies on Chinese medicine syndrome.