Abstract
Much attention in the last few years has been devoted to the clarification of the possible role of taurine in thermoregulation. One of the most striking and consistent effects of central (icv) administration of taurine in mammals is hypothermia. The primary action of taurine on thermoregulatory effectors is expressed peripherally mainly by the promotion of heat dissipation which takes place through a reduction in peripheral vasomotor tone particularly evident in rabbits at the ear vascular bed (22) and by the inhibition of shivering, as shown in primates (11). The participation of the central serotonin system in mediating, at least in part, the taurine effect on thermoregulation has also been demonstrated (22). This serotonergic component is probably responsible for a decrease in metabolic heat production and for an increase in the evaporative heat loss (9) which also accompany taurine-induced hypothermia in the sheep (1). In addition, structure-action correlation studies (21,23) performed on a number of amino-acid compounds structurally related to taurine suggested the existence of two inhibitory synaptic mechanisms, one taurine- and the other GABA-mediated, centrally acting on thermoregulatory effectors by working either independently or synergistically.
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Palmi, M., Frosini, M., Sgaragli, G.P. (1987). Possible Involvement of Brain Calcium Metabolism in the Action of Taurine in Mammalian Thermoregulation. In: Huxtable, R.J., Franconi, F., Giotti, A. (eds) The Biology of Taurine. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 217. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0405-8_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0405-8_25
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