Abstract: Objective To investigate the protective effect of taurine on primary cultured neonatal rat myocardial cells and the inhibitory effect on cardiac fibroblast proliferation. Methods The myocardial cells were divided into six groups:control group, H₂O₂ damage group, H₂O₂ damage group treated with ligustrazine and H₂O₂ damage group treated with taurine with different doses (80, 40 and 20 mmol·L^-1). Morpholoical changes of myocardial cells damaged for 6 h by 0.5 mmol·L ^-1 H₂O₂ under the inverted microscope were observed. Meanwhile, cell survival ability and the contents of LDH, SOD and MDA were measured. Cardiac fibroblasts were randomly divided into 7 groups and co-cultured for 72 h with taurine with doses of 0, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 and 320 mmol·L^-1 and proliferation ability was assessed by MTT method. Results Absorption values in H₂O₂ damage groups treated with taurine (80, 40 and 20 mmol·L^-1) were 0.479±0.055，0.437±0.052 and 0.421±0.062,respectively. They were higer than that in H₂O₂ damage group(0.304±0.050)（P<0.001 or P<0.01）；LDH release and MDA content were remarkly decreased and SOD contents were increased in 80 and 40 mmol·L^-1 taurine groups, as compared with H₂O₂ damage group (P<0.01 or P<0.05). Cardiac fibroblast proliferation was inhibited significantly in 40-320 mmol·L^-1 taurine groups than that in control group(P<0.05, P<0.01 or P<0.001). Conclusion Taurine can protect cultured neonatal rat myocardial cells from free radical damage and inhibit cardiac fibroblast proliferation.

Key words: myocardium, cells, fibroblasts, H_2<, sub>O_2<, sub> damage