Abstract: Objective To investigate the prophylactic and therapeutic effects of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) on transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF- β1)-induced fibrosis in MRC-5 cells. Methods Establish TGF-β1-induced MRC-5 pulmonary fibrosis model. Determine cytotoxicity of TUDCA on MRC-5 cells by MTS. Real-time PCR and Western Blot were applied to quantify the expression of fibrosis biomarker α-SMA and fibronectin. Results 1) TUDCA was well tolerated by MRC-5 cells. 2) TUDCA was able to significantly alleviate the expression of α-SMA and fibronectin induced by TGF-β1 in MRC-5 cells. Conclusion TUDCA alleviates TGF-β1-induced pulmonary fibrotic phenotype in MRC-5 cells.

Key words: tauroursodeoxycholic acid, pulmonary fibrosis, TGF-β1