The Effect of Long-Term Taurine Supplementation and Fructose Feeding on Glucose and Lipid Homeostasis in Wistar Rats - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 36

Chapter 5
The Effect of Long-Term Taurine
Supplementation and Fructose Feeding on
Glucose and Lipid Homeostasis in Wistar Rats
Lea Hüche Larsen , Laura Kofoed Hvidsten Ørstrup , Svend Høime Hansen ,
Niels Grunnet , Bjørn Quistorff , and Ole Hartvig Mortensen
Abstract The nonprotein amino acid taurine has been shown to counteract the
negative effects of a high-fructose diet in rats with regard to insulin resistance and
dyslipidemia. Here we examined the long-term (26 weeks) effects of oral taurine
supplementation (2% in the drinking water) in fructose-fed Wistar rats.
The combination of fructose and taurine caused a significant increase in fasting
glucose compared to the control diet without changing hepatic phosphoenol pyruvate
carboxykinase mRNA levels. The combination of fructose and taurine also improved
glucose tolerance compared to control. Neither a high-fructose diet nor taurine sup-
plementation induced significant changes in body weight, body fat or total calorie
intake, fasting insulin levels, HOMA-IR, or insulin-induced Akt phosphorylation in
skeletal muscle.
Fructose alone caused a decrease in liver triglyceride content, with taurine supple-
mentation preventing this. There was no effect of long-term fructose diet and/or taurine
supplementation on plasma triglycerides, plasma nonesterified fatty acids, as well as
plasma HDL, LDL, and total cholesterol.
In conclusion, the study suggests that long-term taurine supplementation
improves glucose tolerance and normalize hepatic triglyceride content following
long-term fructose feeding. However, as the combination of taurine and fructose
also increased fasting glucose levels, the beneficial effect of taurine supplementa-
tion towards amelioration of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance may be
questionable.
L. H. Larsen ￿ L. K. H. Ørstrup ￿ N. Grunnet ￿ B. Quistorff ￿ O. H. Mortensen ( * )
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cellular and Metabolic Research Section,
University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark
e-mail: [e-mail]
S. H. Hansen
Department of Clinical Biochemistry , Rigshospitalet and Faculty
of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark