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Enhancement of cysteine catabolism into taurine impacts glutathione homeostasis in rats challenged with ethanol

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Abstract

We determined the alterations in metabolic conversion of cysteine into glutathione and taurine in liver of rats treated with ethanol acutely. Ethanol treatment reduced cysteine as well as glutathione levels in liver for 24 h. However, cysteine dioxygenase was up-regulated rapidly, and hypotaurine/taurine levels were significantly higher than those found in the saline-treated rats. It is therefore suggested that enhancement of cysteine catabolism into taurine contributes to the depletion of hepatic glutathione, which could exacerbate the ethanol-induced oxidative liver injury.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Research Foundation (NRF) Grants (No. 2014-R1A2A1A11052967 and No. 2009-0083533) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), Korea.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no financial or other conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards established by the Ethical Animal Care and Use Committee of Seoul National University (Approval No. SNU-120601-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Shinrim-Dong, Kwanak-Ku, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Chul Won Ahn, Do Young Kwon, Doo Sung Jun, Yoo Min Lee & Young Chul Kim

  2. Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Shinrim-Dong, Kwanak-Ku, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Young Chul Kim

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  1. Chul Won Ahn
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  2. Do Young Kwon
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  3. Doo Sung Jun
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  4. Yoo Min Lee
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  5. Young Chul Kim
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Correspondence to Young Chul Kim.

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Ahn, C.W., Kwon, D.Y., Jun, D.S. et al. Enhancement of cysteine catabolism into taurine impacts glutathione homeostasis in rats challenged with ethanol. Amino Acids 47, 1273–1277 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-015-1969-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-015-1969-2

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