Abstract
Taurine (TAU) and compounds representing a TAU analog (hypotaurine = HYTAU) or homolog (aminomethanesulfonic acid = AMSA, homotaurine = HMTAU) were tested for their counteracting effects against alterations in erythrocyte (RBC) morphology, membrane fluidity and cytoskeletal spectrin distribution due to diabetes, alcoholism and diabetes-alcoholism in male Goto-Kakizaki rats (made diabetic with a high fat diet and alcoholic upon feeding on a flavored alcohol solution) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (serving as controls). Both diabetes and alcoholism changed the RBC discoidal biconcave shape to a spiculated one, lowered membrane fluidity, and caused spectrin to become marginalized. While AMSA and HYTAU returned the RBC shape to normal, HMTAU made it only discoidal, and TAU was without effect. All test compounds, but TAU, maintained the membrane fluidity normal; and HYTAU and AMSA, but not TAU or HMTAU, kept spectrin uniformly distributed. The noted effects were correlated with compound structure and RBC values for malondialdehyde and cholesterol/phospholipid ratio.
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