Inhibitory effect of taurine on liver fibrosis in mice

LIU Hong; GAO Yuan-zhi; TIAN Jing-jing; WANG Xue-liang; BAI Jian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2015.21.006

Abstract：Objective To observe the changes of liver injury, fibrosis, oxidative stress and inflammation indexes be-fore and after treatment of taurine in carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis of mice, and to investigate the inhibitory effect of taurine on liver fibrosis in mice.Methods Thirty mice were randomly divided into three groups including blank control group, model group and taurine treatment group, 10 mice in each group.Mice in the model and taurine treatment groups were injected carbon tetrachloride in enterocoelia to build the liver fibrosis model.At the same time, mice in the taurine treatment group were fed by taurine in drinking water.After 10 weeks, peripheral blood and serum were collected. Hyaluronic acid ( HA ) , layer adhesion protein ( LN ) , alanine aminotransferase ( ALT ) , aspartate aminotransferase (AST), interleukin 2 (IL-2) and IL-6 in the serum were detected.The liver index was calculated; the super oxide dis-mutase ( SOD) and malondialdehyde ( MDA) level in the liver tissues was detected;and pathological changes of liver tis-sues were stained by HE and Masson.Results Compared with the model group, HA, LN, ALT, AST, IL-2 and IL-6 lev-els in the serum were decreased in the taurine treatment group (all P<0.05);and SOD in the liver tissue was increased, MDA level, liver indexes were decreased in the liver tissues (all P<0.05).The pathological examination showed that the inflammatory infiltrates in the liver tissue and fat cavitation significantly reduced and fibrous tissue deposition could not be found.Conclusion Taurine has a certain inhibitory effect on carbon tetrachloride induced liver fibrosis in mice.