Influence of taurine dosage on cobalt epilepsy in mice.

The present work addresses itself to answering several questions in relations to the antiepileptic action of taurine (see "Introduction"). For this purpose, cobalt epileptic mice, treated with isoosmolar saline or not treated, was compared with groups of mice that had received doses of taurine varying between 1.0 and 10.0 mg/kg. Whereas all the taurine doses employed effectively reduced seizure incidence, with 10.0 mg/kg giving the best results, none of these doses had ameliorated the amino acid abnormalities in the cortex after two days of treatment in comparison with the group that had received isoosmolar saline. On the contrary, the largest amino acid abnormalities occurred in the group of mice (10.0 mg/kg) that had improved the most clinically. We conclude that the acute antiseizure action of taurine, and its effect on restoring normal amino acid patterns in the cortex, represent two separate properties of taurine.