Abstract
Taurine is nearly ubiquitous in the body, with the highest concentration in excitable tissue. Although it has been implicated in diseases so diverse as epilepsy (Barbeau and Donaldson, 1974; Barbeau et al., 1975) and congestive heart failure (Huxtable and Bressler, 1974), little is actually known of its physiological function. Since it has a potent depressant action on neurons (Curtis and Watkins, 1965; Curtis et al., 1968; Curtis et al., 1971a; Krnjevic, 1964; Hosli and Tebecis, 1970; Haas and Hösli, 1973; Kaczmarek and Adey, 1974), it has been postulated to function as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. In support of this postulation, taurine also appears to meet the other criteria necessary for a compound to qualify as a neurotransmitter (Agrawal et al., 1971; Haas and Hösli, 1973; Curtis et al., 1968; Curtis et al., 1971a,b; Hammerstad et al., 1971; Guidotti et al., 1972; Snyder et al., 1973; Starr, 1973; Schmid et al., 1975).
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Nauss-Karol, C., VanderWende, C. (1981). High Affinity Taurine Uptake in Human Blood Platelets. 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_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8093-8_8
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