Taurine regulates mucosal barrier function to alleviate lipopolysaccharide-induced duodenal inflammation in chicken.

The objective of the study was to investigate how taurine alleviates mucosal injury. Young chickens were fed with taurine for 1 week and then challenged with lipopolysaccharide. We found that, under lipopolysaccharide challenge, taurine could attenuate diarrhea and mucosal inflammation. Additionally, under LPS challenge, taurine could enhance epithelial proliferation and goblet cell function, could also decrease epithelial apoptosis by improving the mitochondrial membrane permeability. The high-performance liquid chromatography assay showed that taurine feeding could elevate taurine concentration in duodenum obviously. The antioxidant assay showed that taurine could reverse lipopolysaccharide-induced low GSH level, GSH/GSSG ratio, GSH-Px activity and SOD activity, high GSSG and MDA content. In summary, we suggested that taurine could enhance duodenal antioxidant status locally and further ameliorated lipopolysaccharide-induced chicken duodenal inflammation by improving mitochondrial membrane permeability and goblet cell function.