Protective Effect of Taurine on the Decreased Biogenic Amine Neurotransmitter Levels in the Brain of Mice Exposed to Arsenic - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 261

Abbreviations

As Arsenic

DBH Dopamine beta hydroxylase

TH Tyrosine hydroxylase

TPH Tryptophan hydroxylase

NE Norepinephrine

DA Dopamine

5-HT Serotonin

26.1 Introduction

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid), the end product of L-cysteine metabolism, is
highly expressed in a variety of organs of most mammals, such as the brain, heart,
and kidneys (Flora et al. 2007 ). The biological occurrence of taurine had been docu-
mented for more than a 100 years and was found to take part in many physiological
functions, including neuromodulation, regulation of calcium-dependent processes,
osmoregulation, thermoregulation, membrane stabilization, neurotransmission, and
neuroprotection, specially detoxication in the organisms destroyed by pollutants
( Pan et al. 2010 ). Recently, taurine was reported to be widely involved in protecting
the central nervous system against the toxic effect induced by arsenic (As) (Das
et al. 2009 ) .
As is a ubiquitous element distributed in environment and millions of peo-
ple are exposed to As worldwide (Abernathy et al. 1999 ) . Chronic exposure to
As has been associated with a wide range of illnesses, including gastrointesti-
nal, respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, genitourinary, endocrine,
hematopoietic, and skin (Jomova and Valko 2011 ; Rios et al. 2009 ; Zarazua
et al. 2010 ). The central nervous system is considered as one of the major
targets by the fact that As exposure resulted in the deficits in the central ner-
vous system not only in experimental animals but also in human (Wasserman
et al. 2004 ; Wright et al. 2006 ). Our previous study also found that memory
function was decreased in mice subchronic exposed to As (Wang et al. 2009 ) .
In recent years, the abnormal function in the brains of animals exposed to As
were attributed to the disordered concentration of norepinephrine (NE), dop-
amine (DA), and serotonin (5-HT) disturbed by As (Tripathi et al. 1997 ;
Delgado et al. 2000 ). NE, DA, and 5-HT were crucially involved in the control
of behavioral processes related to exploration, anxiety, learning, and memory
(Barnes and Sharp 1999 ; Myhrer 2003 ). However, whether the application of
taurine could mediate the abnormal concentration of NE, DA, and 5-HT in the
brains induced by As is still unclear. In the present study, the potential role of
taurine in As that disturbed the concentration of NE, DA, and 5-HT in the
brains of mice was explored.