Experimental ProceduresĮxperiment 1: C57BL/6 J mice were separated into two groups: a control group ( n = 9) and a CSDS group ( n = 9). All animal handling and experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Fourth Military Medical University (ID: 20171202). All mice were housed at a temperature of 22 ± 2 ☌ on a 12 h light and 12 h dark cycle with food and water available ad libitum. Male C57BL/6 J mice (∼ 23 g) and male CD-1 mice aged 7–8 months (∼ 45 g) were purchased from Beijing Weitong Lihua Experimental Animal Technology Co., Ltd. In addition, depression-like behaviors, dendrite morphology, and synapse-associated protein expression were further evaluated in CSDS mice after taurine treatment. In this study, we found significantly reduced levels of interstitial taurine in the cerebral medial prefrontal cortices (mPFC) of chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) mice (Golden et al. However, whether and how taurine supplementation is beneficial for MDD patients remains largely unknown. The level of taurine has been reported to be decreased in the brains of depressive rats, suggesting that taurine is involved in the development of depression (Wu et al. Taurine can be transported into the brain through the taurine transporter (TAUT), which is widely expressed in the brain parenchyma and blood–brain barrier (BBB). In recent decades, taurine has been reported to have many physiological and pharmacological functions, including maintaining membrane stabilization, attenuating inflammation- and oxidative stress-induced injuries, modulating endoplasmic reticulum stress and osmotic pressure, maintaining calcium homeostasis, and acting as a trophic factor in the central nervous system (Menzie et al. Taurine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, is known to be semiessential for mammals.

Therefore, the identification of novel mechanisms and targets is urgently needed to design corresponding therapeutic strategies for major depressive disorder (MDD). Typical antidepressant medications, such as tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, may not show the desired effects for at least three weeks, and many patients do not respond to these treatments (Kupfer et al.

However, the molecular pathogenesis of depression is not fully clear. 2021 Atique-Ur-Rehman and Neill 2019 Liu and Thompson 2017). With societal and economic advances, people are more likely to suffer from psychiatric and dysthymic disorders characterized by a range of symptoms, such as depressed mood, anhedonia, social avoidance, cognitive impairment, and sleep disturbances (Banasr et al. These results demonstrated that taurine exerted an antidepressive effect by protecting cortical neurons from dendritic spine loss and synaptic protein deficits. The expression of N-methyl d-aspartate receptor subunit 2A, an important synaptic receptor, was largely restored in the mPFC of these mice after taurine supplementation. Moreover, taurine treatment protected CSDS mice from impairments in dendritic complexity, spine density, and the proportions of different types of spines.

We found that taurine supplementation effectively rescued immobility time during a tail suspension assay and improved social avoidance behaviors in CSDS mice. Therefore, taurine supplementation may be usable an intervention for depression. Here, microdialysis combined with metabonomic analysis revealed that the level of taurine in the extracellular fluid of the cerebral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was significantly reduced in mice with chronic social defeat stress (CSDS)-induced depression. Taurine is an important amino acid required for brain development. Abnormal amino acid metabolism in neural cells is involved in the occurrence and development of major depressive disorder.

Taurine dosage for anxiety