Cardiac muscle taurine: effects of acute left ventricular ischemia in the dog and anoxic perfusion of the rat heart.

It has been proposed that taurine, or one of its metabolites, may exert anti-arrhythmic effects in cardiac muscle. The present studies examined the effects of acute left ventricular ischemia in the dog (in vivo) and whole heart anoxia in the perfused rat heart (in vitro) on the content and distribution of taurine. In control dogs an increasing outer-to-inner gradient in taurine content was observed in the left ventricle. Left circumflex artery ligation for four hours markedly decreased tissue taurine content, the greatest disappearance occurring in the inner zone. Anoxic perfusion resulted in a similar decrease in rat ventricular taurine levels. Recovery of taurine in the heart perfusates indicated that tissue disappearance, secondary to oxygen deficiency, involved leakage into the extracellular fluid rather than metabolic conversion.