Objective: Hydrocortisone-induced yang-deficiency animal model has now become the generally accepted model of yang deficiency. However, assessing the most appropriate dose of hydrocortisone is a long-term challenge. For analyzing the modeling dose, the authors have built several kinds of yang-deficiency models induced by hydrocortisone at different doses, and analyzed the experimental data with various mathematical statistical methods. In order to discuss the effects of the modeling dose on the basis of previous research, the authors introduced Ridit analysis.
Methods: After categorizing 27 batches of experiments with four different doses (including 2.5, 3.75, 10 and 20 mg/kg), the data were standardized and the data type was changed to meet the needs of subsequent calculations. Then, by using Ridit analysis, the authors compared the variation of 19 biochemistry indexes involving nervous-endocrine system, immune system, metabolic system and the function of the liver and kidney, so as to analyze the similarities and differences of those yang-deficiency models mentioned above. The effects of modeling dose were then discussed.
Results: With regard to the overall state of the animal model, the difference between the models induced by different doses of hydrocortisone (2.5, 3.75, 10 and 20 mg/kg) showed no statistical significance, indicating that differences in hydrocortisone dose barely lead to significant changes in yang-deficiency models. For the trends of changing in different indexes, indexes had different performances when the doses differs: gonad indexes (estradiol and testosterone) showed better performance in 2.5 mg/kg group, immunological indexes (immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G) showed better performance in 3.75 mg/kg group and metabolic indexes (triglyceride and total cholesterol) showed better performance in 10 mg/kg group, etc. This indicates that the dose of hydrocortisone should be determined according to the research purposes.
Conclusion: Ridit analysis can be used as an integration analysis method for animal models of yang deficiency induced by hydrocortisone at different doses.