The excretion of taurine in severe malnutrition - abstract

ABSTRACT

Taurine may be a conditionally essential nutrient in man. Diets lacking taurine have resulted in reduced body and urinary taurine and in the development of abnormal retinograms, which were reserved with taurine supplementation. Malnourished children are often fed diets low in taurine and other sulphur amino acids, particularly cow's milk-based diets. It is therefore possible that their taurine body pools and hence excretion are low. Urinary taurine was measured, by spectrophotometry, in 37 malnourished children, aged 3-24 months, on admission to hospital and when recovered. Four normals, aged 60-96 months, were also studied. Taurine in the urine of the normals, expressed as uM/d, was about 6 times that of the malnourished children on admission and on discharge respectively. The difference was even greater when expressed per body weight. The values were also low when compared with published values for normals. The children were rehabilitated on a cow's milk-based diet. Thus, the over-all low levels most likely resulted from low dietary taurine and reduced synthesis. Urinary taurine can serve as a crude index of taurine status, suggesting that the children were at risk of developing abnormal retinograms. The lowest values were from the oedematous children. This observation could be important in terms of new data showing that taurine protects cell membranes by attenuating toxic compounds. Taurine supplementation might beneficial in severe malnutrition (AU)