Role of taurine as a possible transmitter in the thermoregulatory pathways of the rat

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Abstract
Taurine (10 and 20 μg) injected unilaterally into the lateral ventricle of rats caused an increase in core temperature. Bilateral injection of taurine 2.5 and 5 into the preoptic region of the anterior hypothalamus induced a dose-related hyperthermia: higher doses (10 μg) caused hypothermia. Intrahypothalamically taurine-induced hyperthermia was blocked by prior injection of strychnine hydrochloride (5 and 15 μg); doses which alone had no effect on core temperature. Of the other inhibitory amino acids injected intrahypothalamically hypotaurine also induced a hyperthermia. GABA (10 μg) caused hypothermia; glycine (10 μg) had no effect. Potassium (50 mM) stimulated release of radioactivity from superfused slices of anterior hypothalamus prelabelled with [3H]taurine in a calcium-dependent manner. A high affinity uptake mechanism with a Km of 8.5 μM was demonstrated with [3H]taurine into slices of anterior hypothalamus. Taurine may have a neurotransmitter role in the anterior hypothalamus but whether the body temperature effects represent physiological or pharmacological events remains to be established.