AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 250, Issue 6 1014-R1020, Copyright © 1986 by American Physiological Society
Changes in blood pressure and extracellular fluid with taurine in DOCA-salt rats
T. Fujita and Y. Sato
The effect of taurine, a sulfur amino acid, on blood pressure and
extracellular fluid volume in deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt
hypertensive rats was studied. Uninephrectomized rats showed average
systolic pressure of 175 +/- 3 mmHg after the 28 days of treatment with
DOCA while receiving 1% NaCl solution to drink. The supplementation of 1
and 3% taurine could prevent the development of DOCA-salt hypertension in a
dose-related fashion: average pressures on day 28 after these dosages were
126 +/- 2 and 104 +/- 2 mmHg, respectively. Exchangeable body sodium
(sodium "space") at week 4 was significantly increased in DOCA-salt rats
compared with that of the vehicle-injected control rats. Furthermore, the
taurine supplement increased sodium space significantly in the DOCA-salt
rats. Overall, there was a negative correlation between the systolic blood
pressure and sodium space at week 4 in the taurine-supplemented DOCA-salt
rats (r = -0.492, P less than 0.02), although there was a positive
correlation between systolic pressure and sodium space in the DOCA-salt
rats and the vehicle-injected control rats (r = 0.036, P less than 0.001).
The results suggest that taurine loading may attenuate the rise in blood
pressure associated with fluid retention during the DOCA-salt treatment and
that the fall in blood pressure with its consequence for the renal
circulation may be the cause of fluid retention.
