Sturman J A, Moretz R C, French J H, Wisniewski H M
J Neurosci Res. 1985;13(4):521-8. doi: 10.1002/jnr.490130407.
Dietary deprivation of taurine in pregnant cats from approximately 1 week prior to giving birth is sufficient to reduce substantially the taurine concentration in feline milk but does not result in any abnormalities in kittens at birth. Kittens nursing on this low taurine milk have a lower growth rate than normal, have lower tissue taurine concentrations, and 8 weeks after birth have a persistence of cells in the cerebellar external granule cell layer. Mitotic figures are present also, indicating that cell division is occurring still, an event which normally is completed 3-4 weeks after birth. Daily oral supplementation with 40 mumoles taurine increases the growth rate almost to the level of normally nurtured kittens and results in normal tissue taurine concentrations and apparently normal migration of cells in the cerebellum. These findings indicate that nutritional taurine supplied in the milk is involved in the normal ontogeny of the cerebellum and that a taurine deficiency at this stage of development results in a maturational delay.
在怀孕母猫分娩前约1周开始进行牛磺酸的膳食剥夺，足以大幅降低猫乳中的牛磺酸浓度，但不会导致出生时小猫出现任何异常。食用这种低牛磺酸牛奶的小猫生长速度低于正常水平，组织中的牛磺酸浓度较低，并且在出生8周后，小脑外颗粒细胞层中存在持续的细胞。也有有丝分裂图像，表明细胞分裂仍在发生，而这一过程正常情况下在出生后3 - 4周就已完成。每天口服补充40微摩尔牛磺酸可使生长速度几乎提高到正常喂养小猫的水平，并导致组织牛磺酸浓度正常，且小脑细胞的迁移明显正常。这些发现表明，乳汁中提供的营养性牛磺酸参与了小脑的正常个体发育，并且在这个发育阶段牛磺酸缺乏会导致成熟延迟。
