Draft:Chen Keji

Category:Living people Category:1930 births Category:Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chen Keji (Chinese: 陈可冀; born October 1930) is a Chinese medical scientist, clinician, and educator who serves as a principal founder and pioneer of modern Integrative Medicine (combination of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine) in the People's Republic of China. He was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1991 within the Division of Medical Sciences and Health, making him the premier and longest-serving academician in this specific discipline within China's highest national academic body. For over seven decades, Chen has dedicated his career to the clinical care, academic formulation, and scientific validation of integrative cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular medicine.

Early life and education

Chen Keji was born in October 1930 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. He graduated from Fujian Medical College (now Fujian Medical University) in 1954 with a degree in Western Medicine. Shortly thereafter, responding to national initiatives aimed at inheriting and systematizing traditional Chinese knowledge, he undertook intensive, long-term legacy apprenticeships under renowned TCM masters, most notably the imperial physician Yue Meizhong. This dual exposure equipped him with a background to synthesize empirical clinical observations with modern experimental methodology.

Affiliations and leadership

Chen maintains a portfolio of institutional affiliations and advisory appointments within prominent national and global scientific organizations:

• Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS): Elected as an Academician in 1991.
• China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS): Senior Researcher, Chief Physician, and Life-long Honorary President of the Academy.
• Xiyuan Hospital, CACMS: Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and Chairman of the Hospital Academic Committee, which has served as his primary clinical and experimental headquarters for over half a century.
• Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine (CAIM): One of the primary original founders in 1981. He served as its first Secretary-General and subsequently held the position of President from 1996 to 2008. He currently serves as Honorary President.
• World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFTCM): President of the Senior Expert Committee and former Chairman of the World Integrative Medicine Congress (presiding over the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world congresses).
• World Health Organization (WHO): Appointed as a long-term Expert Advisory Panel Member on Traditional Medicine, serving continuously from 1979 through the early 2000s.
• Academic Editorial Leadership: Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine (established 1981) and the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine (established 1995, indexed in SCIE).

Major contributions

Theoretical framework of Integrative Medicine

Chen introduced the structural concept of "Disease-Syndrome Combination" (辨病与辨证结合). This approach uses modern Western diagnostic criteria to define the structural disease entity (such as coronary artery atherosclerosis) while leveraging traditional Chinese diagnostic modalities to differentiate the dynamic, functional "Syndrome" or Zheng (证) of the individual patient (such as Blood Stasis Syndrome). This dual-axis diagnostic framework remains an operational reference across integrative clinics worldwide.

Modernization of Blood Stasis Syndrome

Chen transformed the interpretation of "Blood Stasis" (血瘀), an ancient TCM concept denoting circulatory obstruction. By subjecting this condition to hematological, rheological, and molecular analysis, he transformed a subjective clinical description into a measurable pathological state. He established standardized diagnostic criteria that allowed clinicians to objectively categorize and treat ischemic cardiovascular conditions using targeted Chinese herbal formulas.

Preservation of Imperial Medical Archives

Chen led an extensive archival rescue and digitization project focused on historical medical texts. Over several decades, his research team collected, transcribed, and analyzed over 30,000 original medical records, prescriptions, and case histories from the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty (清代宫廷医疗档案). By translating these imperial secret formulas into standardized modern preparations, he preserved vital historical knowledge for contemporary clinical use.

Global Standardization and Internationalization

Through his advisory service to the WHO and his leadership in founding the SCIE-indexed Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, Chen contributed to creating the nomenclature, methodology, and publishing standards necessary to present traditional medical knowledge to the international scientific community. He championed the execution of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (RCTs) for herbal extracts to validate their efficacy to a global medical audience.

Scientific achievements and details

Diagnostic standardization of Blood Stasis Syndrome (BSS)

To establish a reproducible framework for clinical trials and routine care, Chen drafted and implemented the first objective national Criteria for the Diagnosis of Blood Stasis Syndrome and its corresponding therapeutic evaluation scales. These criteria categorize specific physical signs (such as localized sharp pain, sublingual varicosities, purpuric tongue manifestations, and ecchymosis) alongside objective laboratory markers: Whole Blood Viscosity, Plasma Viscosity, Platelet Aggregation Rate (PAR), and Fibrinogen Levels.

He further developed a systematic pharmacological classification for traditional herbs that activate blood circulation and eliminate stasis, sorting them into three distinct functional tiers:

1. Blood-Regulating Herbs: Mild agents focused on optimizing microvascular tone.
2. Blood-Circulating Herbs: Moderate agents aimed at reducing plasma viscosity and inhibiting platelet aggregation.
3. Blood-Stasis Breaking Herbs: Potent agents designed to disrupt fibrin networks and modulate localized thrombi.

Deconstruction and Validation of Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction

Chen executed the basic and clinical modernization of the Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction (血府逐瘀汤), a classic compound formulation designed to treat chest pain and circulatory obstruction. His group isolated the active fractions of this multi-herb formulation and subjected them to cellular and in-vivo tracking. The research demonstrated that the decoction exerts its therapeutic effects through multi-target mechanisms: downregulating pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha and IL-6), preventing endothelial cell apoptosis under hypoxic stress, and stimulating localized angiogenesis via the upregulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) signaling pathways. This work was awarded the First Prize of National Scientific Achievement in 2003.

Development of Standardized Cardiovascular Pharmaceuticals

Chen converted numerous raw botanical recipes into highly standardized, modern pharmaceutical agents. A notable example is his development of Xiongshao Capsule (芎芍胶囊), an extract containing precise ratios of active constituents from Rhizoma Chuanxiong and Radix Paeoniae Rubra. In large-scale clinical trials, Xiongshao Capsule demonstrated a significant capacity to prevent restenosis following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) or balloon angioplasty. The formulation works by inhibiting the hyperproliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) into the tunica intima, which is a major driver of post-surgical arterial re-occlusion.

Quantitative Methodology in Qing Dynasty Imperial Medicine

Through the analysis of 30,000 imperial medical documents, Chen's team deployed modern data-mining approaches to identify the core herbs used for longevity, cognitive preservation, and metabolic regulation by the Qing imperial court. This work culminated in the publication of monographs, including Research on Qing Palace Medical Archives and Practical Study on Blood Stasis Syndrome, providing the scientific community with data on historical herbal safety profiles, long-term dosing dynamics, and historical epidemiology.