Kt. Gottschallpass et al., EFFECT OF TAURINE DEFICIENCY ON TISSUE TAURINE CONCENTRATIONS AND PREGNANCY OUTCOME IN THE RAT, Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 73(8), 1995, pp. 1130-1135
Taurine status and pregnancy outcome were assessed in rats fed low die
tary taurine and varying doses of guanidinoethyl sulfonate (GES), a st
ructural analogue of taurine. Female Sprague - Dawley rats (225 - 270
g) were mated overnight and assigned to one of four groups from day 0
to 20 of gestation. Taurine-deficient animals were fed a basal diet co
ntaining < 0.001 mu mol taurine/g and 0.5 (n = 7), 1.0 (n = 8), or 2.0
% (n = 7) GES in their drinking water, ad libitum. Control animals (n
= 8) received similar treatment, with 2 mu mol taurine/g added to the
diet and no GES in their water. Taurine was analyzed by reverse-phase
HPLC, using electrochemical detection after precolumn derivatization w
ith ortho-phthalaldehyde. Treatment of rats with varying doses of GES
produced a sharp decline in maternal liver and brain taurine to 15 and
55% of that of control levels, and in fetal liver and brain taurine t
o 75 and 50% of that of control levels, respectively (p = 0.0001; one-
way ANOVA). The 2% group had a smaller mean (+/- SEM) litter weight th
an the control group (35.8 +/- 6.1 vs. 51.9 +/- 2.8 g; p = 0.042) as a
result of a smaller litter size. The decrease in litter size was asso
ciated with confinement of implantation sites to either the left or ri
ght uterine horn in four of seven dams. Taurine deficiency did not res
ult in intrauterine growth retardation or significant external, viscer
al, or skeletal malformations. Developmental defects were not found in
any of the taurine-deficient groups, but reproductive abnormalities w
ere present at the highest dose of the analogue.