YEN-HUNG YEH^1*, MING-HSIUNG CHEN², YA-TING LEE³, HUNG-SHENG HSIEH⁴ AND DENG-FWU HWANG²

(Received: November 15, 2007; Accepted: January 28, 2008)

   Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) occurs naturally in food, especially in seafood and meat.  The aim of our investigation was to evaluate the effect of dietary taurine on oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fish oil induced toxicity in male Wistar rats. Thirty male wistar rats were fed with diets supplemented with 5% taurine, 2% oxidized cholesterol or 3% oxidized fish oil for 6 weeks.  After feeding such diet, taurine could increase the high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) level in plasma, and glutathione (GSH) level in plasma, and decrease the activities of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) in plasma, and the levels of low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (VLDL-C), triglyceride, total cholesterol in plasma, and relative ratios of liver weight to body weight and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) level in the rat liver caused by oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fish oil.  It could reduce the biochemical parameters characteristic in the plasma and rate liver caused by oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fish oil.  It was also found that taurine possessed a good recovering effect and a short-term preventing effect from the toxicity of oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fish oil in rats.  The results suggest that taurine may play an important role in suppressing effect by oxidized cholesterol and oxidized fish oil induced toxicity in rats.