Carrier-mediated taurine uptake in the fetal mouse heart.

Myocardial taurine concentrations have been found to be elevated in hypertension and congestive heart failure states in animals and humans. The mechanism(s) by which myocardial taurine levels increase isn't known. Biosynthesis of taurine by the heart has not been established as a significant process. The fetal mouse heart in culture was used to characterize a taurine uptake system. The uptake of taurine was found to be saturable, temperature and sodium dependent and inhibited by close structural analogs. Taurine uptake was energy dependent and accumulated taurine against a concentration gradient indicating that taurine transport is an active process. Failure of alpha-alanine, alpha-aminoisobutyric acid, glycine, leucine or threonine to decrease taurine uptake establishes that the taurine uptake system is separate and distinct from other neutral alpha-amino acid transport systems in the heart.