The Effects Of Taurine On Bone Metabolism

Objective: Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is a conditionally essential amino acid, which is a prevalent intracellular free amino acid presented in high concentrations in the brain, heart, eye, muscle, liver and bone. Recently, evidences have suggested that taurine played an important role in bone metabolism by regulating osteoblast metabolism and mineralization via ERK activation. Taurine is mainly uptaked into cells via the taurine transporter (TAUT). In the present study, the expression and [~3H] taurine uptake function of TAUT in osteoblasts were firstly evaluated.Methods: The expression of TAUT mRNA and protein in primary-cultured human osteoblasts, osteoblast-like MG63 cell and MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts were determined by semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot, immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The expression change of TAUT mRNA in different stage of differentiation...