Enzymes involved in collagen biosynthesis, including lysyl oxidase (LOX), have been proposed as potential therapeutic targets for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. LOX expression is significantly upregulated in bleomycin (BLM)-induced lung fibrosis, and knockdown of LOX expression or inhibition of LOX activity alleviates the lung fibrosis. Unexpectedly, treatment of the mice with LOX inhibitor at the inflammatory stage, but not the fibrogenic stage, efficiently reduces collagen deposition and normalizes lung architecture. Inhibition of LOX impairs inflammatory cell infiltration, TGF-β signaling, and myofibroblast accumulation. Furthermore, ectopic expression of LOX sensitizes the fibrosis-resistant Balb/c mice to BLM-induced inflammation and lung fibrosis. These results suggest that LOX is indispensable for the progression of BLM-induced experimental lung fibrosis by aggravating the inflammatory response and subsequent fibrosis process after lung injury.

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Short chain diols (propanediols, butanediols, pentanediols) have been widely used in bulk and fine chemical industries as fuels, solvents, polymer monomers and pharmaceutical precursors. The chemical production of short chain diols from fossil resources has been developed and optimized for decades. Consideration of the exhausting fossil resources and the increasing environment issues, the bio-based process to produce short chain diols is attracting interests. Currently, a variety of biotechnologies have been developed for the microbial production of the short chain diols from renewable feed-stocks. In order to efficiently produce bio-diols, the techniques like metabolically engineering the production strains, optimization of the fermentation processes, and integration of a reasonable downstream recovery processes have been thoroughly investigated. In this review, we summarized the recent development in the whole process of bio-diols production including substrate, microorganism, metabolic pathway, fermentation process and downstream process.