Abstract: All cats fed a taurine-free casein diet for 23 weeks have shown a nondetectable electroretinogram (ERG) in association with a plasma and retinal taurine deficiency. In the present study, the casein diet was supplemented with either taurine or taurine precursors (methionine or cysteine) for 23 weeks to see if retinal function would be preserved. Cats fed the casein diet supplemented with methionine or cysteine showed ERG's reduced in amplitude and delayed in implicit time and had plasma and retinal taurine levels that were well below normal by 23 weeks. Only those cats given taurine in the diet (i.e., those fed chow or casein supplemented with taurine) retained normal ERG function and normal plasma and retinal taurine concentrations. These findings establish a role for taurine in maintaining normal retinal function in the cat.

Abstract: The cerebella of rats were exposed to selective doses of low levels of x-irradiation beginning on day 4, 8, or 12 following birth. The doses of x-irradiation given on days 12, 13, and 15 (12–15X group) resulted in a 24% reduction in the wet weight of the cerebella; the doses given on days 8, 9, 11, 13, and 15 (8–15X group) resulted in a 57% weight reduction; the doses given on days 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 (4–15X group) resulted in a 67% weight reduction. The schedule of x-irradiation begun on day 12, which prevented the acquisition of the late-forming granule cells, reduced the levels (nmole/mg dry tissue weight) of alanine (22%) and glutamate (10%), and increased the levels of glycine (15%), GABA (13%), and taurine (71%), with respect to control values. The schedule begun on day 8, which prevented the acquisition of stellate and granule cells, reduced the levels of alanine (15%), glutamate (12%), and taurine (21%), and increased the levels of glycine (102%) and GABA (56%). The schedule begun on day 4, which prevented the acquisition of basket, stellate, and granule cells, reduced the level of glutamate (15%) and increased the levels of glycine (186%) and GABA (78%). The levels of alanine and taurine in the cerebella of the 4–15X group were the same as control values. The level of aspartate in the cerebella of the 3 groups of x-irradiated animals was not significantly different from control values. The consistent reduction in the level of glutamate as a function of the number of doses of x-irradiation is suggestive that glutamate may have a higher level in the granule cells than in other cells in the cerebellum, and that the higher level may be a reflection of a possible excitatory transmitter role for glutamate. In addition, the data are interpreted in terms of taurine being associated with the stellate cells and possibly serving as a transmitter for these inhibitory interneurons.

Abstract: In cats anaesthetised with pentobarbitone, the effect of inhibitors of the in vitro cellular uptake of GABA were tested on the responses of single central neurones to GABA and other depressant amino acids. (+)- And (-)-nipecotic acid, (+)-2,4-diaminobutyric acid (DABA) and 2,2-dimethyl-β-alanine, enhanced the action of GABA on spinal, cerebellar and cerebral cortical neurones. In the spinal cord DABA, and to a less extent (-)-nipecotic acid, enhanced the action of β-alanine, whereas the actions of glycine and taurine were unaffected by DABA and reduced by (-)-nipecotic acid. In the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, these two substances enhanced the action of GABA, usually to a greater extent than that of β-alanine and taurine, although this specificity was not marked. The GABA-mediated basket cell inhibition of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum was unaffected by DABA and (-)-nipecotic acid, and neither substance appears suitable for determining the role of uptake processes in the inactivation of synaptically released GABA. Quantitatively these in vivo results agree more closely with recent in vitro uptake studies in cat tissue than the previously published data on rat cerebral cortex and dorsal root ganglia, and the observations provide further evidence for the importance of cellular uptake in maintaining low extraneuronal concentrations of inhibitory amino acid transmitters.

Abstract: 1 Ehrlich ascites tumour cells swollen in hypotonic medium reduce their volumes towards that found in isotonic medium 2 This regulation of cell volume implies an adjustment of the intracellular amount of osmotically active substances, ie a type of “isosmotic intracellular regulation” 3 Non-protein ninhydrin-positive substances were lost from the cells during this volume regulation 4 Amino acid analyses show that the non-essential amino acids play a significant role in this process 5 The relative decrease in concentration was larger for taurine than for any other measured inorganic and organic substance The absolute change in intracellular taurine concentration is third only to changes in chloride and potassium The role of taurine in osmoregulation is similar to that observed in many aquatic invertebrates 6 The steady state distribution of amino acids varies with the magnitude of the Na+ and K+ concentration gradients between the cells and their environment The ion gradient hypothesis fits our data only if we introduce a leakage pathway for the amino acids which is independent of the amino acid pump and which varies with the cell volume

Abstract: – Subcutaneous administration of high doses of sodium glutamate to rats during their first week after birth produced an almost total loss of choline acetyltransferase, a 90% reduction in glutamate decarboxylase and 70% reductions in acetylcholinesterase and DOPA decarboxylase activities in the adult retina. In addition there was a 70% decrease in GABA and 35-55% decrease in aspartate, glutamate, glycine, alanine and glutamine. No reduction in taurine was observed. The results support the view that the enzymes are mainly localized in the interneurons of retina and that taurine is present in the photoreceptor cells. Glutamate treatment was also followed by a small reduction in choline acetyltransferase and glutamate decarboxylase of the superior colliculus and in choline acetyltransferase of hippocampus, whereas no changes could be detected in the lateral geniculate body of the adult rat. Unilateral enucleation performed on 1-day-old animals did not alter choline acetyltransferase, acetylcholinesterase, glutamate decarboxylase and DOPA decarboxylase activities in the superior colliculus and in the lateral geniculate body of the adult rat.

Abstract: Plasma free amino-acids were measured in 41 patients with hereditary chorio-retinal degenerations including 26 with retinitis pigmentosa and five with gyrate atrophy of the choroid, six relatives of patients with gyrate atrophy, and 13 normal subjects. Patients with gyrate atrophy had very increased levels of ornithine and slightly decreased mean lysine values. Most relatives had slightly increased ornithine. Taurine, known to be deficient in the plasma of casein-fed cats with photoreceptor degeneration, was normal in all patients. Amino-acid precursors and metabolites of ornithine and taurine were also normal in the plasma. Although the association of high ornithine and gyrate atrophy appears constant, high levels of ornithine alone do not necessarily lead to this degeneration; one patient with known hyperammonaemia, homocitrullinuria and a tenfold increase in plasma ornithine was found to have a normal fundus appearance and normal electroretinogram.

Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to test the ability of weanling rats to utilize the oxidized forms of the sulfur amino acids methionine and cysteine for growth. In the first two experiments, diets were fed which contained graded levels of methionine, methionine sulfoxide and methionine sulfone. The third experiment included a comparison of two dietary levels of cysteine and cysteic acid. The 2 week weight gain and food consumption data indicated that methionine sulfoxide was utilized for growth with only 60% of the efficiency of that achieved by rats fed methionine. Methionine sulfone was not utilized for growth. Analysis of plasma sulfur amino acids showed that the rat has a limited capacity to utilize methionine sulfoxide by effecting its reduction to methionine. Cysteic acid did not support weight gain. This amino acid appeared to be rapidly catabolized to taurine. It was concluded that methionine sulfone and cysteic acid cannot be utilized by the weanling rat. Methionine sulfoxide cannot fully meet the dietary requirement of the rat methionine because of its limited capacity to reduce this amino acid.

Abstract: — Taurine is taken up into the frog retina by active, sodium dependent, temperature sensitive systems that show both high and low affinity for the amino acid (Kmabout 50 μm and 2 mm respectively). Autoradiographs from retinae incubated in radioactively labelled taurine showed heavy grain density over cell bodies in the position of amacrine interneurones and over specific strata in the inner synaptic layer of the tissue. Photoreceptor cells were also labelled. Taurine, once accumulated by the frog retina, is not lost during the incubation and is only slowly metabolised. Electrical stimulation caused taurine release above the level of spontaneous efflux but light or depolarisation of the tissue with 40mm-potassium chloride did not.

Abstract: Perfusion of an isolated rat kidney with labelled bile acids, in a protein-free medium, resulted in the urinary excretion of the labelled bile acid, 3% being converted into polar metabolities in 1h. These metabolities were neither glycine nor taurine conjugates, nor bile acid glucuronides, and on solovolysis yielded the free bile acid. On t.l.c. the metabolite of [24-14C]lithocholic acid had the mobility of lithocholate 3-sulphate. The principal metabolite of [24-14C]chenodeoxycholic acid had the mobility of chenodeoxycholate 7-sulphate; trace amounts appeared as chenodeoxycholate 3-sulphate. [35S]sulphate was incorporated in chenodeoxycholic acid by the kidney, resulting in a similar pattern of sulphation. No disulphate salt of chenodeoxycholic acid was detected. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that renal synthesis may account for some of the bile acid sulphates present in urine in the cholestatic syndrome in man.

Abstract: Transport rates for taurine from plasma to liver, kidney, heart, spleen and femoral muscle were evaluated in adult and 7-day-old mice in vivo. The mice were injected with [35S]taurine and the specific radioactivity of taurine was determined in the above tissues at varying intervals from 10 min up to 48 hr after the injection. A multicompartment model was fitted to the data and the transport rates with their confidence limits were estimated using a digital computer. The tissue-plasma exchange rate was generally faster in adult mice than in 7-day-old mice. The transport rates between the plasma and the brain or muscle were low, while taurine penetrated into the liver and kidneys very rapidly. There was no distinct correlation between the calculated transport rates and the tissue taurine concentrations. The metabolic breakdown of taurine in the tissues was slow, since only negligible amounts of radioactivity were recovered in the metabolites of taurine, isethionic acid and inorganic sulphate. It seems unlikely that either the magnitudes of the transport rates between the plasma and the tissues or taurine breakdown rates in situ act as the primary factor determining the taurine levels in tissues.

Abstract: High-performance liquid-chromatographic separation of bile acids, free and conjugated with taurine and glycine, is described The analysis of free and glycine conjugated bile acids is based on the esterification of the carboxylic group of bile acids with 1-p-nitrobenzyl-3-p-tolyltriazene On the other hand, taurine conjugated bile acids are separated and detected by an ultraviolet detector (210 nm), directly

Abstract: 1. At least 50% of a dose of 14C-labelled 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or phenylacetic acid was excreted in urine in 48 hours after administration to dogfish shark or flounder. 2. For both compounds, more than 90% of the urinary 14C was present as a single metabolite. 3. Each metabolite was the taurine conjugate of the administered compound.

Abstract: 1 Picrotoxin selectively and reversibly suppressed the inhibitory action of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), but not that of glycine, taurine or beta-alanine, on the frequency of spontaneous spike discharges in guinea-pig cerebellar slices. Strychnine reversibly suppressed the inhibitory action of glycine, taurine or beta-alanine but had no effect on that of GABA. 2 GABA, glycine, taurine and beta-alanine showed an early excitatory effect that was unaffected by picrotoxin or strychnine. 3 Studies of the dose-response relations indicated a competition between the amino acid and the convulsant at a common receptor site. 4 Kinetic analyses of the dose-response relations for the amino acids in the presence or absence of picrotoxin or strychnine indicated that the number of molecules of amino acid combining with the receptor site in order to produce a response (inhibition or excitation) was 3 for GABA, 2 for glycine, 3 for taurine and 4 for beta-alanine. There appeared to be no evidence that the response was due to the cooperativity between the amino acid receptor complexes. The number of molecules of convulsant that combined with the receptor site was 1 for either strychnine or picrotoxin. 5 Mixtures of glycine with taurine or beta-alanine, in contrast to those with GABA, appeared not to give additive inhibitory effects.

Abstract: Lithocholic acid is the major bacterial metabolite of chenodeoxycholic acid. It is absorbed from the lower intestine and conjugated with taurine or glycine. In man, it is extensively sulphated, but the sulphated lithocholates secreted in bile are not extensively reabsorbed; this results in a small pool of circulating lithocholates with a rapid turnover. The metabolism of lithocholate in healthy man has been carefully studied in Hofmann’s laboratory (A.E. Cowen et al, Gastro. 69:59, 67 & 77, 1975).