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Taurine in Health and Disease pp 51–57Cite as

Expression and Regulation of the Taurine Transporter in Cultured Cell Lines of Human Origin

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Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 359))

Abstract

Taurine is the most abundant free amino acid in several tissues (5,9,28). The ability of tissues to accumulate taurine is primarily determined by the activity of a transporter that is specific for taurine and other β-amino acids. The findings that certain tissues can concentrate taurine to levels as high as 40–50 mM with the plasma levels of taurine being in the range of only 50–80 μM point to the uniqueness of the transporter in terms of its concentrative ability. Three different driving forces, namely a Na+ gradient, a Cl− gradient, and membrane potential, energize the transport system. The Na+: Cl−: taurine stoichiometry is 2:1:1. The transporter has been recently cloned from MDCK (Madin-Darby Canine Kidney) cells (32), rat brain (27), mouse brain (15), human FRTL-5 thyroid cells (10) and human placenta (21,25). A comparison of nucleotide sequences of the taurine transporter cDNAs with those of the other cloned transporters indicates that the taurine transporter belongs to a gene family which encodes Na+ — and Cl−-coupled transporters (2,3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, 30912-2100, USA

    Vadivel Ganapathy & Frederick H. Leibach

Authors
  1. Vadivel Ganapathy
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  2. Frederick H. Leibach
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Ryan J. Huxtable

  2. University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Dietrich Michalk

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ganapathy, V., Leibach, F.H. (1994). Expression and Regulation of the Taurine Transporter in Cultured Cell Lines of Human Origin. In: Huxtable, R.J., Michalk, D. (eds) Taurine in Health and Disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 359. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1471-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1471-2_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1473-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1471-2

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