The Effect of Taurine on Plasma Cholesterol Concentration in Genetic Type 2 Diabetic GK Rats

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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of taurine on the plasma cholesterol concentration in genetic type 2 diabetic rats fed cholesterol-free or high-choles-terol diets. Diabetic rats (GIG male rats) and normal rats (Wistar male rats) were fed either a cholesterol-free or cholesterol-enriched (1% cholesterol+ 0.2 5 % sodium cholate) diet sup-plemented with or without 3% taurine for 21 or 14 d. Compared to the normal rats, diabetic rats showed a high glucose concentration in their blood and plasma, but it was not affected by taurine feeding. The plasma insulin concentration was higher in the diabetic rats than in the normal rats. At the start of the experiment, the plasma cholesterol concentration was significantly higher in the diabetic rats than in the normal rats. Taurine did not affect the plasma cholesterol level in rats fed the cholesterol-free diet. However, taurine feeding signifi-cantly increased the plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration in the diabetic rats fed the cho-lesterol-free diet. In both the diabetic and normal rats fed the cholesterol diet, the plasma cholesterol concentration was significantly lower in rats fed the diet supplemented with tau-rive than in the rats fed the control diet. It was concluded that taurine has a hypocholes-terolemic effect in both diabetic and normal rats fed diets containing cholesterol. Moreover, these results suggest that taurine seems to affect the HDL-cholesterol metabolism in diabetic rats fed a cholesterol-free diet.

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