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Article

Dietary Taurine Alters Ascorbic Acid Metabolism in Rats Fed Diets Containing Polychlorinated Biphenyls¹

Hideki Mochizuki^*, Hiroaki Oda and Hidehiko Yokogoshi^*2

^* School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, The University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan; and Department of Applied Molecular Biosciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan

²To whom correspondence should be addressed.

The effect of dietary taurine on ascorbic acid metabolism and hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes was investigated in rats fed diets containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) to determine whether taurine has an adaptive and protective function in xenobiotic-treated animals. Young male Wistar rats (60 g) were fed diets containing 0 or 0.2 g/kg diet PCB with or without 30 g/kg diet of taurine for 14 d. The rats fed the PCB-containing diets had greater liver weight, higher ascorbic acid concentrations in the liver and spleen and greater hepatic cytochrome P-450 contents than control rats that were not treated with PCB (P < 0.01). In PCB-fed rats, urinary ascorbic acid excretion was enhanced, and serum cholesterol concentration (especially HDL-cholesterol) was significantly elevated compared with those in control rats. Dietary taurine significantly potentiated the increases in the urinary excretion of ascorbic acid and the rise in the levels of cytochrome P-450 which were caused by PCB treatment. On the other hand, the supplementation of taurine to control diet did not alter these variables. Taurine may enhance the hepatic drug-metabolizing systems, leading to the stimulation of the ascorbic acid metabolism in rats fed diets containing PCB.

KEY WORDS: • taurine • polychlorinated biphenyls • ascorbic acid • cytochrome P-450 • rats

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