Taurine and Chinese Traditional Medicine Accelerate Alcohol Metabolism in Mice - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 18

Chapter 3
Taurine and Chinese Traditional Medicine
Accelerate Alcohol Metabolism in Mice
Gaofeng Wu * , Jiancheng Yang * , Shumei Lin , Ying Feng ,
Qunhui Yang , Qiufeng Lv , and Jianmin Hu
Abstract Excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous and causes serious damage
to health. The main organ capable of alcohol oxidizing is liver which is also the
main organ synthesizing taurine, a sulfur-containing b-amino acid, which is the
major free intracellular amino acid presenting in many tissues of human and animals
and exerting many physiologic and pharmacologic functions. To investigate the
effect of taurine and Chinese traditional medicine on alcohol metabolism after
acute alcoholic intake, male Kunming mice were administered with 60% alcohol
(0.4 ml) intragastrically. Water, taurine, or taurine coadministration with Chinese
traditional medicine was intragastrically administered to mice 30 min before or
after alcohol intake. The disappearance of body-righting reflex was used to deter-
mine the intoxication of mice. Durations between alcohol intake and intoxication
(tolerance time), intoxication and recovery (maintenance time) were recorded. The
concentration of blood alcohol, levels of hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH),
and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) were detected at 20, 50, 90, 120, and
150 min after alcohol intake. The results showed that taurine administered
alone or together with Chinese traditional medicine could both significantly reduce
the number of intoxicated mice, postpone the tolerance time, shorten the mainte-
nance time, and could obvisouly decrease blood level of alcohol, increase hepatic
levels of ADH and ALDH. The results indicated that taurine administered alone or
* These authors contributed equally to the work.
G. Wu ￿ J. Yang ￿ S. Lin ￿ Y. Feng ￿ Q. Yang ￿ Q. Lv ￿ J. Hu ( * )
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, University of Shenyang Agricultural
University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province , Shenyang 110866 , P.R.China
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