Perinatal Taurine Imbalance Alters the Interplay of Renin–Angiotensin System and Estrogen on Glucose–Insulin Regulation in Adult Female Rats - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 65

insulin secretion only in TDG and this group displayed hyperglycemia and glucose
intolerance. These data indicate that perinatal taurine imbalance alters the interplay
of RAS and estrogen on glucose-insulin regulation in adult female rats.

Abbreviations

CW Control with water intake alone

CW + Cap CW plus captopril treatment

CW + Tam CW plus tamoxifen treatment

CG Control with high sugar intake

CG + Cap CG plus captopril treatment

CG + Tam CG plus tamoxifen treatment

TDW Perinatal taurine depletion with water intake alone

TDW + Cap TDW plus captopril treatment

TDW + Tam TDW plus tamoxifen treatment

TDG Perinatal taurine depletion with high sugar intake

TDG + Cap TDG plus captopril treatment

TDG + Tam TDG plus tamoxifen treatment

TSW Perinatal taurine supplementation with water intake alone

TSW + Cap TSW plus captopril treatment

TSW + Tam TSW plus tamoxifen treatment

TSG Perinatal taurine supplementation with high sugar intake

TSG + Cap TSG plus captopril treatment

TSG + Tam TSG plus tamoxifen treatment

RAS Renin-angiotensin system

SD Sprague-Dawley

8.1 Introduction

A beta-amino acid taurine plays many physiological roles in humans and animals
throughout life. Several lines of evidence indicate that taurine supplementation can
reduce hyperglycemia in animal models of diabetes mellitus (Kim et al. 2007 ) and
prevents sugar-induced hypertension (Harada et al. 2004 ; Nandhini and Anuradha
2004 ; Rahman et al. 2011 ). Perinatal protein malnutrition induces pancreatic damage
in mature offspring, the effect that is prevented by taurine supplementation (Boujendar
et al. 2002 ; Merezak et al. 2001 ). In addition, prenatal taurine supplementation delays
the onset of diabetes mellitus in non-obese diabetic mice (Arany et al. 2004 ) .
Conversely, perinatal taurine depletion induces low birth weights in animals, and
these animals develop obesity, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, diabetes mel-
litus, and hypertension in mature life (Aerts and Van Assche 2002 ) . In addition, this
apparently epigenetic modification can be transferred to the next generation. Although