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 269

disclose the mechanism underlying the protective role of taurine against the
decreased level of neurotransmitter induced by As, the key synzymes in the synthe-
sis of neurotransmitters were examined. And the results in the present study showed
that the expression of DBH, TH, and TPH mRNA were significantly increased in
the cerebellum of mice exposed to As and taurine together, except that the changed
in TPH mRNA in the cerebrum wasn't significant. These results indicated that tau-
rine also had a protective effect on the decreased biogenic amine neurotransmitter
levels in the brain of mice exposed to As through reducing the expression of DBH,
TH, and TPH mRNA. In fact, the protect effect of taurine on the moleculars at the
translation level disturbed by As in the central nervous system had also been
reported. Hong et al. showed that the decreased expression of Sdha mRNA in the
brains of mice exposed to As could be partially rescued by coadministered with
taurine (Hong et al. 2009 ). However, the expression of Camk4 mRNA in the brains
of mice exposed to As wasn't affected with the intervention of taurine in the same
experiment (Wang et al. 2009 ). Anyway, the exact mechanism about the effect on
the translation level induced by taurine needs to be further explored.

26.5 Conclusion

In summary, the present study showed that subchronic As exposure decreased the
concentration of NE, DA, and 5-HT; the number of synaptic vesicles; and the
expressions of TH, TPH, and DBH genes in the brains of mice. And the toxic effect
induced by As could be intervened by the coadministration of taurine. These results
indicated that taurine might have the protective effect on the decreased biogenic
amine neurotransmitter levels and the downregulated gene expressions of their
synzymes in the brain of mice exposed to As.

Acknowledgements We thank National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30571584) for
fi nancial support.

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