Abstract
AIM: To find a rapid and efficient analysis method of gastrointestinal microflora in Pi-deficient (spleen-deficient) rats and to evaluate traditional Chinese drugs. METHODS: Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR) based assay was performed to examine changes of intestinal microflora in two Pi-deficienct animal models and to evaluate the efficacy of four traditional Chinese drugs as well as a probiotic recipe and another therapy in Pi-deficient rats. RESULTS: A molecular marker was identified for Pi-deficiency in rats. The pharmacodynamic evaluation system, including identified molecular markers (net integral area and abundance of DNA bands), Shannon's index for diversity of intestinal microflora, and Sorenson's pairwise similarity coefficient, was established. The four major clinical recipes of traditional Chinese drugs for Pi-deficiency in rats, especially at their medium dose (equivalence to the clinical dose), produced more pronounced recovery activities in Pi-deficient rats, while higher doses of these recipes did not show a better therapeutic effect but some toxic effects such as perturbation deterioration of intestinal microflora. CONCLUSION: Both fingerprint analysis and identified marker can show Pi-deficiency in rats and its difference after treatment. The identified molecular marker may be applied in screening for the active compounds both in relative traditional Chinese drugs and in pharmacodynamic study of Pi-deficiency in rats.