Taurine in developing brain, liver and muscle in infants.
In order to evaluate tissue taurine storage during pregnancy, we determined the taurine concentration of a skeletal muscle (abdominal wall), the brain (left parietal lobe), and the liver (right lobe) in 41 children aged 1-10 days, born after 24-41 weeks gestation. Samples were obtained during autopsy. Taurine dosage was carried out by gas chromatography. Muscle and liver taurine concentrations decreased with the duration of gestation. For a given duration of pregnancy, there was no correlation between birth weight and these three tissue concentrations. From these results, we estimate that the fetus accumulates 35-40 mumol/24 h of taurine during the last 3 months of gestation.
Ghisolfi
J
J
Groupe d'Etudes en Nutrition Infantile, CHR Purpan, Toulouse, France.
Nguyen
V B
VB
Thouvenot
J P
JP
Rolland
M
M
Putet
G
G
Lapalu-Traon
C
C
D000886:Anthropometry; D001724:Birth Weight; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000378:metabolism*; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000378:metabolism*; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism*; D013654:Taurine / Q000378:metabolism*
D013654:Taurine