Characterization of a Carrier-Mediated Transport System for Taurine in the Fetal Mouse Heart In Vitro

Abstract

A B S T R A C T Cardiac taurine levels are elevated in hypertension and congestive heart failure. A possible mechanism for this increase in taurine is an alteration of its uptake. We sought to identify and characterize a carrier-mediated transport system for taurine in the mammalian myocardium utilizing the fetal mouse heart in organ culture. Hearts from fetuses of 16-19 days gestational age used in these studies had an endog- enous taurine content of 14.1+0.5 nmol/mg tissue.