Effect of taurine on calcium paradox and ischemic heart failure

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Abstract
The loss of mechanical function in rat hearts subjected to either the Ca paradox or global ischemia heart failure models was found to correlate with decreases in myocardial taurine levels. The effect of taurine treatment was assessed in the 2 failure procedures. The presence of taurine protected against loss of mechanical function resulting from the Ca paradox and prevented both the large decline in sarcolemmal ATPase activities and the increase in sarcolemmal Ca binding normally associated with this model. Parallel studies on reperfused, taurine-untreated ischemic hearts showed minor changes in these sarcolemmal functions. Taurine treatment normalized the slight increase in Ca binding associated with ischemia, but had no observable effect on recovery of mechanical function. Although taurine returns selected parameters of the sarcolemma toward normal in both models, it only improves mechanical function in the paradox model. Ca paradox-induced heart failure evidently is more closely associated with sarcolemmal dysfunction than ischemic heart failure.