Abstract
Taurine, a sulfur-containing β-amino acid, is highly contained in heart and skeletal muscle. Taurine has a variety of biological actions, such as ion movement, calcium handling and cytoprotection in the cardiac and skeletal muscles. Meanwhile, taurine deficiency leads various pathologies, including dilated cardiomyopathy, in cat and fox. However, the essential role of taurine depletion on pathogenesis has not been fully clarified. To address the physiological role of taurine in mammalian tissues, taurine transporter-(TauT-) knockout models were recently generated. TauTKO mice exhibited loss of body weight, abnormal cardiac function and the reduced exercise capacity with tissue taurine depletion. In this chapter, we summarize pathological profile and histological feature of heart and skeletal muscle in TauTKO mice.
Highlights
Taurine is a most abundant free amino acid in mammalian tissues with an intracellular concentration of 5-20 μmol/g wet weight [1,2]
Taurine deficiency related to some kinds of pathophysiological conditions in cats and foxes, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, retinal degradation and reproduction[3,4,5]
Since the capacity to synthesize taurine in most tissues, such as heart and skeletal muscle, is limited, maintenance of the large intracellular taurine pool may depend upon uptake of the amino acid from extracellular space via Taurine transporter (TauT)
Summary
Taurine is a most abundant free amino acid in mammalian tissues with an intracellular concentration of 5-20 μmol/g wet weight [1,2]. Warskulat et al reported that biomarker genes for heart failure, including ANP, BNP and CARP, are upregulated in TauTKO hearts consistent with our TauTKO model [17] They demonstrated that the TauTKO hearts showed a switch from alpha-actin 1 (skeletal muscle type) to alpha-actin 2 (smooth muscle type) expression [17]. Warskulat et al have reported that total running distance to exhaustion on the treadmill is reduced by more than 80% in TauTKO mice [9] These data indicate that taurine deficiency may reduce muscle function in skeletal muscles. Electron microscopy revealed some kinds of ultrastructural abnormalities in TauTKO muscle, such as filament fragmentation, membranous cytoplasmic body and lipid droplet (Fig. 2B) These observations suggest that taurine depletion may result in destabilization of myofilament and other cytosolic organelle in skeletal muscle. Further studies are required to clarify the mechanism underlying taurine depletion-induced muscle disorders
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