Abstract: Cleft lip and palate is a kind of congenital maxillofacial malformation, which has a high incidence in Asia. Many researches show that maxillofacial development of mouse share lots of similarities with human. Therefore, cleft lip and palate mouse model has always been an important tool to study human cleft lip and palate. The mouse model has advantages such as large numbers, long life, short growth cycle and easy to obtain, but also has many disadvantages such as limited types of models. Nowadays, there are various methods to establish cleft lip and palate mouse model. Using surgery to build cleft lip and palate mouse model is commonly used; Genetic engineering technology, such as transgenic technology, gene knockout technology, was used to establish cleft lip and palate mouse model. To establish cleft lip and palate mouse model, teratogenic agents such as dexamethasone and dioxins were applied to pregnant mice to influence the development of embryonic mice. In this paper, the methods of establishing mouse model of cleft lip and palate were reviewed.

Key words: Cleft lip and palate, 　Mouse model, 　Genetic engineering technology, 　Teratogen