Effects of Dietary Taurine Supplementation on Hepatic Morphological Changes of Rats in Diethylnitrosamine-Induced Hepatocarcinogenesis

Abstract

Taurine (2-aminoethane sulfonic acid) is a sulfur-containing β-amino acid that is the most abundant free amino acid in many mammalian tissues. It has many physiological functions including conjugation with bile acids, modulation of calcium levels, maintenance of osmolarity, antioxidation, membrane protection, and many others^1,3. It has been reported that both endogenous and exogenous taurine were effective in cancer prevention through antioxidation in the pro-oxidation condition induced in carcinogenesis^4,5which may result in damage to the cellular antioxidant defense enzymes as well as the membranes⁶. It has also been reported that taurine showed chemoprevention against colon and hepatic cancer⁷. The protection of hepatocytes by taurine showed a correlation with the inhibition of lipid peroxidation⁸ and ornithine decarboxylase activity⁹. However, there were insignificant results in the chemopreventative effects of taurine¹⁰. Therefore, the present study was conducted in order to examine the effects of dietary taurine supplementation at various levels and taurine depletion by 5% dietary β-alanine on hepatic morphological changes during diethylnitrosoamine(DEN)-induced carcinogenesis.