AIM:To investigate the effects of taurine on lipopolysaccharide ( LPS)-induced myocardial damage in rats.METHODS:Healthy male SD rats ( n=30) were randomly divided into control group ( CON) , LPS model group ( LPS) and taurine treatment group ( TAU) .The rats in CON group and LPS group were intravenously injected with normal saline, and the rats in TAU group were injected with taurine (100 mg/kg).After 2 h, the rats in LPS group and TAU group were intraperitoneally injected with LPS at 10 mg/kg, and the rats in CON group were injected with normal saline . Six hours after injection of LPS , the blood samples were collected for determination of superoxide dismutase ( SOD) activi-ty, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels.The myocar-dial tissues were processed for histological examination and the analysis of Western blot .RESULTS:Compared with CON group, LPS significantly reduced SOD activity in the serum and heme oxygenase 1 ( HO-1) protein expression in the myo-cardial tissues, increased the serum content of MDA and levels of TNF-αand IL-6.LPS also significantly elevated the lev-els of TNF-αand IL-6, and up-regulated the cyclooxygenase-2 ( COX-2) expression and phosphorylation of nuclear factor kappa B ( NF-κB) in the myocardial tissues .Taurine pretreatment significantly elevated SOD activity and HO-1 protein ex-pression level, decreased the levels of COX-2, TNF-α, IL-6 and phosphorylated NF-κB.Histological observation showed that taurine reduced inflammatory response in the myocardial tissue .CONCLUSION: Taurine attenuates LPS-induced myocardial damage in rats .The beneficial effects of taurine may be associated with its reduction of p-NF-κB/COX-2 signa-ling by activation of HO-1/CO.

Objective To find out association mapping of loci related to bipolar disorder on chromosome 4 with microsatellite markers in DNA pooling samples from bipolar disorder cases and normal controls in Shandong province. Methods A total of 22 microsatellite markers on chromosome 4 spaced at approximately 10 cM were selected and two separated DNA pooling samples consisting of 104 bipolar disorder cases and 1000 normal controls were genotyped respectively. Statistic analysis was performed by Chi-square method with CLUMP software to compare the difference in the ratio of each allele in these loci between the two pooling samples. Result Significant statistic differences were found at D4S1592 and D4S402 on chromosome 4 between cases and controls(P＜0.01 ).( D4S1592:x2 = 15.968, P=0.006; D4S402:x2 =31.553, P=0.002). Conclusion The loci of D4S1592 and D4S402 on chromosome 4 are found to be associated with bipolar disorder patients in Shandong province, further screening of the susceptibility genes around these loci is needed.

Escherichia coli is a highly adaptable opportunistic pathogen bacterium that can form biofilms on the surface of implants and generates persistent cells,leading to life-threatening infections that are difficult to treat with antibiotics alone.Therefore,there is a need for an effective E.coli biofilm inhibitor to combat this public health threat.Indole is a novel quorum-sensing signaling molecule of E.coli discovered in recent years,which is of great significance in regulating bacterial growth and biofilm formation,and is a potential target for future research on new anti-biofilm preparations.This article reviews the research progress on the formation of Escherichia coli biofilms,the microbial metabolism of indole and its regulation of Escherichia coli biofilm formation,in order to provide information for clinical treatment and drug development.