title: Inhibitory effects of taurine on STZ-induced apoptosis of pancreatic islet cells.
abstract: The present research aims to investigate the inhibition effect of taurine on the apoptosis of pancreatic islet cells induced by Streptozotocin (STZ). One hundred male Wistar rats weighing 180-200 g were randomly divided into two groups, rats in the experimental were intraperitoneally injected with 2% STZ (50 mg/kg bw, dissolved in 0.1 mmol/L pH 4.2 citrate buffer), rats in the control group were injected with the same volume of citrate buffer. Rats with the fasting blood glucose level higher than 16.7 mmol/L were selected and randomly divided into four groups: Rats in M group were STZ-induced diabetes rats, rats in T1, T2, and T3 groups were intragastrically administered with taurine (dissolved in 0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as thickening agent) once a day for 4 weeks with the contents of 0.6 g/kg, 1.2 g/kg, and 2.4 g/kg bw, respectively, while rats in group C and M were given the same amount of thickening agent as T2 group. Four weeks later, pancreatic tissues were fixed and processed for paraffin section. The results showed that STZ induced a significant increase in apoptotic rate of pancreatic islet cells, up-regulated the expression of bax and Fas and down-regulated the expression of Bcl-2, which were significantly blocked by taurine (P  < 0.05). The results indicated that taurine could significantly restrain apoptosis of pancreatic islet cells induced by STZ.
authors: College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China.
authors: Shumei
authors: S
authors: Lin
authors: Jiancheng
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Gaofeng
authors: G
authors: Wu
authors: Mei
authors: M
authors: Liu
authors: Qiufeng
authors: Q
authors: Lv
authors: Qunhui
authors: Q
authors: Yang
authors: Jianmin
authors: J
authors: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013311:Streptozocin / Q000633:toxicity*; D013654:Taurine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C491898:Fas protein, rat; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D019014:fas Receptor; D013654:Taurine; D013311:Streptozocin