Abstract
Taurine is present in high concentrations in mammalian brain and in especially high concentrations in developing brain, in which it is the free amino acid present in the greatest concentration (Sturman et al., 1978). Little is known about the functions of taurine, other than its role in bile acid conjugation, an observation made over a century ago (Strecker, 1849) and repeatedly confirmed (Danielsson, 1963). Taurine has been proposed as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain and retina (Mandel and Pasantes-Morales, 1978; Oja and Kontro, 1978; Mandel et al., 1976), although it is present in far greater amounts than would be required for such a neurophysiological function. An alternative function of taurine may be that of membrane stabilization. It has been shown that taurine increases the permeability of lobster giant axon membranes to potassium and chloride but not to sodium (Gruener and Bryant, 1975). Although such ion fluxes are consistent with the actions of an inhibitory neurotransmitter, the observations were made on a region of lobster axon void of synaptic receptors. Taurine has been implicated in some forms of epilepsy, both in animal models and in man (Barbeau et al., 1975; Van Gelder, 1976, 1978). Frequently the concentration of taurine at the epileptic focus is lower than that in the surrounding tissue, and this change is often accompanied by disturbances in glutamic acid metabolism. Taurine therapy of epilepsy has been tested clinically with some success.
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Sturman, J.A. (1981). Axonal Transport of Taurine. In: Schaffer, S.W., Baskin, S.I., Kocsis, J.J. (eds) The Effects of Taurine on Excitable Tissues. Monographs of the Physiological Society of Philadelphia, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8093-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8093-8_16
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