The taurine concentration of organs from fed and fasted rats.

Taurine exists free in the organs of many animals (14) and also in combined form, as in the bile salts. The composition of bile salts from over 100 animal species was recently reported, and taurine was the most commonly occurring conjugate (5). The large amount of taurine present in certain tissues seems to be in excess of the amount needed for the formation of bile salts. Moreover, taurine is found in organs of animals such as the rabbit (5), that do not produce taurine-containing bile salts, and it is also formed from inorganic sulfate in the chick embryo (6,7). From these facts it may be inferred that taurine may play some other r81e besides that of forming bile salts. Considerably more information than that now available is needed to understand the role of taurine. In the present work attention has been directed to the taurine concentration of tissues, including the effect of fasting, of starvation, and of the endocrine glands. In addition, the amounts of taurine excreted in the urine have been measured after the administration of cysteine. From the results obtained, it is concluded that taurine is formed even when animals are fasted and that the levels of taurine in most organs do not change to any great extent. Some unexpected sex differences in the taurine concentration of liver were observed in the rat.