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Effect of Dietary Sulfur on Taurine Excretion by the Rat¹

Department of Nutrition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916

Previous investigations in this laboratory have suggested that the obligatory oxidation of amino acid sulfur to endogenous sulfate by the rat is an inefficient process which results in the increased excretion of other sulfur-containing metabolites. Therefore, the effect of in vivo sulfate restriction on the urinary excretion of taurine was investigated. Dietary sulfate restriction increased the amount of ³⁵S-cysteine excreted as ³⁵S-taurine. For example, rats fed diets containing 0.0002% of inorganic sulfate and ³⁵S-cysteine excreted approximately twice as much ³⁵S-taurine as those fed diets containing 0.1% of inorganic sulfate and ³⁵S-cysteine. These data show that dietary sulfate restriction results in an increased taurine synthesis. Since this increase in endogenous taurine is apparently wasted, these data afford an explanation for previously observed inefficiencies in the oxidation of amino acid sulfur to sulfate by the rat.

KEY WORDS: • taurine • inorganic sulfate • cysteine

¹ Published by permission of the Dean, Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station and the Dean, College of Home Economics.

² Present address: Department of Foods and Nutrition. Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.

Manuscript received 6 September 1973.