Taurine biosynthesis in rat brain: a new specific and sensitive microassay of cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase (CSDI) activity through selective immunotrapping and its use for distribution studies.

Cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase (CSD), the putative biosynthetic enzyme for taurine, has been shown to exist in two forms in rat brain, respectively CSDI and CSDII, one of which (CSDII) is considered to be in fact glutamate decarboxylase (GAD). CSDI assay after immunotrapping was made possible by using an anti-CSD antiserum raised in sheep immunized with a partially purified CSD fraction from liver. This antiserum immunoprecipitated both liver CSD and brain CSDI activities with the same affinity but did not inhibit their enzymatic activities. The immunotrapping of CSDI was selective without any contamination by GAD/CSDII activity. The immunotrapped CSD activity, which corresponded exactly to the amount of CSD not precipitated by a GAD/CSDII antiserum, was not inhibited by a specific irreversible GAD inhibitor. A quantitative, selective and sensitive assay was thus developed by measuring CSD activity on the solid phase after immunotrapping. Kinetic parameters of the immunotrapped enzyme remained unchanged. CSDI activity represented only a fraction, around 20% with saturating concentration of substrate, of the total CSD activity in rat brain homogenate. This indicates that most studies on total CSD activity dealt essentially with CSDII activity that is indeed GAD. Regional and subcellular distributions of CSDI have been determined. CSDI activity was about threefold higher in the richest (cerebellum) compared to the poorest (striatum) region without any correlation with GAD/CSDII distribution. Subcellular distribution showed a fourfold enrichment of CSDI activity in the synaptosomal fraction. The precise role of CSDI and CSDII in the biosynthesis of taurine in vivo remains to be elucidated.