Abstract
Cats fed a taurine.free, casein diet develop retinal taurine deficiency and, subsequently, photoreceptor cell death (Berson et al., 1976; Schmidt et al., 1976; Schmidt et al., 1977). Supplementation of this diet with methionine, cysteine, inorganic sulfate, vitamin B6, or vitamin B6 plus cysteine did not prevent development of retinal taurine deficiency and retinal malfunction. A synthetic amino acid diet devoid of casein and taurine also resulted in retinal taurine deficiency and retinal malfunction. Only taurine-containing diets (i.e., chow or casein plus taurine) preserved normal retinal taurine concentrations and electroretinogram (ERG) amplitudes. These findings have firmly established a role for exogenous taurine in maintaining normal retinal function in the cat.
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Schmidt, S.Y. (1981). Taurine in Retinas of Taurine-deficient Cats and RCS Rats. In: Schaffer, S.W., Baskin, S.I., Kocsis, J.J. (eds) The Effects of Taurine on Excitable Tissues. Monographs of the Physiological Society of Philadelphia, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8093-8_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8093-8_15
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