Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathology of the lethal skeletal muscle disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and various antioxidants have been investigated as a potential therapy. Recently, treatment of the mdx mouse model for DMD with the antioxidant and cysteine and glutathione (GSH) precursor n-acetylcysteine (NAC) was shown to decrease protein thiol oxidation and improve ...

Characteristics of taurine uptake were investigated in apical membrane vesicles isolated from bovine retinal pigment epithelium. Uptake of taurine into these vesicles was stimulated markedly by the presence of an inwardly directed NaCl gradient across the membrane. The time course of the NaCl gradient-dependent uptake showed an overshoot, indicating a transient accumulation of taurine in the ve...

Previous studies of plasma taurine concentrations in epileptics have yielded equivocal results. We measured plasma and urinary taurine in 41 epileptic and 68 control subjects and found plasma concentrations among epileptics to be comparable in general to those of controls, but that two or three classes of plasma taurine concentrations, possibly genetically regulated, occur in both epileptic and...

Taurine, a non essential sulfur-containing amino acid, plays a critical role in cardiovascular functions. We here examined the effect of taurine on angiogenesis and its underlying signal pathway. Taurine treatment increased angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo, which was followed by activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, MEK/ERK, and Src/FAK signaling pathways. Further, taurin...

Taurine is an essential amino acid in some mammals and is conditionally essential in humans. Taurine is an abundant component of meat and fish-based foods and has been used as an oral supplement in the treatment of disorders such as cystic fibrosis and hypertension. The purpose of this investigation was to identity the relative contributions of the solute transporters involved in taurine uptake...

Using a clonal growth assay, we demonstrated that taurine, a nonperturbing osmolyte accumulated in kidney medulla, brain, and some other tissues of hypertonic experimental animals can function as a nonperturbing osmolyte in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. The taurine content of hypertonic MDCK cells is twice that of isotonic MDCK cells (isotonic 160 nmol/mg protein; hypertonic 320 nmol/...

The interactions between the kidney and taurine are multifaceted. Taurine contributes to several biologic processes in the kidney, and the kidney influences specific aspects of taurine homeostasis [1]. The numerous molecular and cellular regulators of taurine handling by the kidney have been recently reviewed [2]. Thus, this chapter will examine several aspects of renal function in relation to ...

There is evidence that increased availability of taurine enhances the proportion of taurine-conjugated bile acids in bile. To explore the possibility that taurine treatment could also influence hepatic cholesterol and bile acid metabolism, we fed female hamsters for 1 week and measured both the biliary lipid content and the microsomal level of the rate-limiting enzymes of cholesterol and bile a...

Two monoclonal antibodies against fixative-modified taurine, Tau1 and Tau2, were produced, characterized, and used in the present study to analyze the distribution of taurine in the cerebellum of the rat. In addition, immunohistochemical colocalization experiments were performed to determine whether cerebellar neurons contain both taurine and its synthesizing enzyme, cysteine sulfinic acid deca...