Taurine improves functional and histological outcomes and reduces inflammation in traumatic brain injury

•Taurine significantly improved functional recovery at 3, 5 and 7 days after TBI.•Taurine significantly decreased accumulation of GFAP in the brain at 7 days after TBI.•Taurine significantly reduced water content in the penumbral region at 7 days after TBI.•Taurine significantly suppressed GRO/KC and IL-1β levels while elevating RANTES levels at 1 day.•Taurine markedly decreased the level of 17 cytokines in a week.

We investigated the effect of taurine on inflammatory cytokine expression, on astrocyte activity and cerebral edema and functional outcomes, following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats. 72 rats were randomly divided into sham, TBI and Taurine groups. Rats subjected to moderate lateral fluid percussion injury were injected intravenously with taurine (200 mg/kg) or saline immediately after injury or daily for 7 days. Functional outcome was evaluated using Modified Neurological Severity Score (mNSS). Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) of the brain was measured using immunofluorescence. Concentration of 23 cytokines and chemokines in the injured cortex at 1 and 7 days after TBI was assessed by Luminex xMAP technology. The results showed that taurine significantly improved functional recovery except 1 day, reduced accumulation of GFAP and water content in the penumbral region at 7 days after TBI. Compared with the TBI group, taurine significantly suppressed growth-related oncogene (GRO/KC) and interleukin (IL)-1β levels while elevating the levels of regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) at 1 day. And taurine markedly decreased the level of 17 cytokine: eotaxin, Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-17, leptin, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and only increased the level of MIP-1α in a week. The results suggest that taurine effectively mitigates the severity of brain damage in TBI by attenuating the increase of astrocyte activity and edema as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines.