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Studies on Renal Adaptation to Altered Dietary Amino Acid Intake: Tissue Taurine Responses in Nursing and Adult Rats¹

Russell W. Chesney^*, Shirley Lippincott, Naomi Gusowski, Marcia Padilla and Israel Zelikovic^*

^* Department of Pediatrics, University of California - Davis Medical Center, Davis, CA Pediatric Renal Disease Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin Center For the Health Sciences, Madison, WI

This study examines the effect of a low sulfur amino acid diet (LTD) and a high taurine diet (HTD), compared with a normal diet, on the plasma, urine, muscle, brain and renal cortex levels of taurine in immature and adult rats. Milk taurine from lactating dams reflected the taurine content of the diet, being low in LTD-fed and high in HTD-fed animals. Nursing pups (7, 14 and 21 d old) often had plasma, urine and tissue—renal cortex, heart, skeletal muscle—levels of taurine related to dietary exposure, a situation also found in adult animals. These diets did not influence the urinary excretion of the sulfur-containing -amino acids methionine and cystine but a sulfur aminoaciduria of immaturity was evident. By contrast, the content of taurine in brain was constant regardless of dietary intake of sulfur amino acids. An age-related decline in brain taurine content was found—as noted by others—but this too was influenced by diet. This dual finding of brain taurine constancy despite wide differences in sulfur amino acid intake and changes in the renal handling of taurine as influenced by diet suggest that the renal adaptive response serves to maintain the stability of brain taurine content.

KEY WORDS: • taurine • sulfur amino acids • renal adaptation • brain taurine • renal tubular transport

¹ Supported in part by grants from the NIH RO1-AM31682-02, RO1-AM37223-01 and the Graduate School and Medical School Research Committees of the University of Wisconsin.

Manuscript received 6 December 1985. Revision accepted 21 April 1986.