The Role of Taurine on Skeletal Muscle Cell Differentiation - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 301

The present study suggested that exogenous taurine might play a key role on the
mature differentiation/growth of the skeletal muscle during development period
through Ca 2+ signaling pathway, and therefore, taurine would contribute the muscle
recovery after damages.

Abbreviations

TAUT Taurine transporter

GM Growth medium

DM Differentiation medium

MHC Myosin heavy chain

MCIP Myocyte-enriched calcineurin-interacting protein

29.1 Introduction

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is abundantly contained in the skeletal muscles
( Jacobsen and Swimth 1968 ), particularly in the slow-twitch fiber rather than in the
fast-twitch fiber (Airaksinen et al. 1990 ; Iwata et al. 1986 ). Although taurine is bio-
synthesized from sulfur-contained amino acids (methionine and cysteine) in the liver
and brain via specific enzymes (cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase and cysteine dioxy-
genase), the biosynthesis ability is very low (Hosokawa et al. 1990 ; Kaisaki et al.
1995 ; Ramamoorthy et al. 1994 ). Therefore, the abundant muscular taurine content
depends on the exogenous uptake through a specific transporter, taurine transporter
(TAUT). Furthermore, taurine is an essential amino acid in fetus and infant due to lack
of taurine biosynthesis ability in the perinatal period, and therefore, a large amount of
taurine is endogenously supplied through placenta and maternal milk. It has been
reported that a premature baby and incomplete postnatal tissue development and body
growth were observed if taurine intake were insufficient in the pregnant and postnatal
periods (Aerts and Van Assche 2002 ; Sturman and Messing 1991 ; Sturman 1993 ) .
Taurine has been also considered as one of essential factors on the differentia-
tion/growth of skeletal muscles because deficiency of taurine causes incomplete
muscular development and exercise abilities. In the TAUT KO mice, the lower
body mass and skeletal muscle growth were observed associated with significant
deficiency of tissue taurine concentration compared with wild-type mice (Heller-
Stilb et al. 2002 ; Warskulat et al. 2004 ), and the morphological abnormalities
including muscular atrophy and disruption of myofibrillar ultrastructure and the
reduction of physical capacity were also found in the TAUT KO mice (Ito et al.
2008 ). In the TAUT KO mice, the deficiency of tissue taurine innately induced is
suggested to influence incomplete development of skeletal muscle tissue.
In general cell culture experiments, the condition should be deficient of taurine
because culture medium and serum do not contain taurine at all. Therefore, most of