Research reportNeuroprotective actions of taurine on hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in neonatal rats

- Taurine, a natural amino acid, exerts neuroprotective effect against cerebral hypoxic-ischemic damage in neonatal rats.
- Taurine has demonstrated anti-oxidative effect on cerebral hypoxic-ischemic damage in neonatal rats.
- Taurine regulates the Bcl-2/Bax balance on cerebral hypoxic-ischemic damage in neonatal rats.
- Taurine inhibits AIF and Cyt c over expression on cerebral hypoxic-ischemic damage in neonatal rats.
- Taurine may have potential as a little side-effect, safe and effective protective agent for newborn hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

Taurine is an abundant amino acid in the nervous system, which has been proved to possess antioxidation, osmoregulation and membrane stabilization. Previously it has been demonstrated that taurine exerts ischemic brain injury protective effect. This study was designed to investigate whether the protective effect of taurine has the possibility to be applied to treat neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage. Seven-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with left carotid artery ligation followed by exposure to 8% oxygen to generate the experimental group. The cerebral damage area was measured after taurine post-treatment with 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining, Hematoxyline-Eosin (HE) staining and Nissl staining. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), myeloperoxtidase (MPO), ATP and Lactic Acid productions were assayed with ipsilateral hemisphere homogenates. Western-blot and immunofluorescence assay were processed to detect the expressions of AIF, Cyt C, Bax, Bcl-2 in brain. We found that taurine significantly reduced brain infarct volume and ameliorated morphological injury obviously reversed the changes of SOD, MDA, GSH-Px, T-AOC, ATP, MPO, and Lactic Acid levels. Compared with hypoxic-ischemic group, it showed marked reduction of AIF, Cyt C and Bax expressions and increase of Bcl-2 after post-treatment. We conclude that taurine possesses an efficacious neuroprotective effect after cerebral hypoxic-ischemic damage in neonatal rats.