Abstract
Previously, we described the combined toxicity of taurine and alcohol, and assumed hypoglycemia to be one reason of this toxicity. To understand whether taurine-ethanol combined toxicity is exclusively connected to taurine or whether other inhibitory amino acids may have similar effects when combined with ethanol, we tested different doses of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in combination with ethanol in 7-day-old mice. The minimal dose of GABA in combination with 5 g/kg ethanol which could kill a mouse was 2 g/kg. GABA combined with ethanol at doses of 3 g/kg, 4 g/kg, 6 g/kg induced lethality of 30%, 90% and 100%, correspondingly. Taurine at the doses of 4 and 6 g/kg combined with ethanol induced death in 60 and 100% of mice. Ethanol (5 g/kg), taurine (6 g/kg), GABA (4 g/kg) administered alone and the combination of ethanol (5 g/kg) with taurine (3 g/kg) have no lethal effects. GABA (6 g/kg) applied alone induced 90% lethality. Taurine or GABA alone decreased blood glucose in a dose-depending manner. Ethanol potentiated GABA- and taurine-induced decrease in blood glucose and in some animals it dropped from 8.8 (intact) to a hypoglycemic level 3.1–3.3 mmol/L (GABA 4 g/kg, taurine 6 g/kg), but this may not be considered a single reason of death. We conclude that the combination of GABA and ethanol has a lethal effect and this is stronger than the combined toxicity of ethanol and taurine.
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Abbreviations
- E:
-
Ethanol
- G:
-
GABA
- GABA:
-
Gamma-aminobutyric acid
- HPLC:
-
High performance liquid chromatography
- OPA:
-
Ortho-phthaldialdehyde
- T:
-
Taurine
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mrs. Irma Rantamaa for her skillful technical assistance in GABA and taurine assays. We are also thankful to Ms. Leena Tanner-Väisänen for her expert determinations of ethanol. We further thank Dr. Tiina Solakivi for her invaluable help with blood glucose measurements. This study was supported by the competitive research funding of the Pirkanmaa Hospital District and the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies.
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Taranukhin, A.G., Saransaari, P., Kiianmaa, K., Gunnar, T., Oja, S.S. (2017). Comparison of Toxicity of Taurine and GABA in Combination with Alcohol in 7-Day-Old Mice. In: Lee, DH., Schaffer, S.W., Park, E., Kim, H.W. (eds) Taurine 10. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 975. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1079-2_81
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