Effects of Taurine and Vitamin D on Antioxidant Enzyme Activity and Lipids Profiles in Rats Fed Diet Deficient...

Calcium deficiency is a worldwide problem affecting both developed and developing countries. The deficiency in calcium leads to a marked decrease of superoxide dismutase. It is known that vitamin D protects cells against oxidative damages while taurine plays an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant role. In this study, we examined whether vitamin D and taurine supplementation had a protective effect on oxidative stress in rats fed calcium deficient diet. Female SD rats (mean weight 60 ∼ 70 g) were divided into four groups; control, taurine, vitamin D, taurine + vitamin D for 6 weeks (taurine: 2 g/100 g diet, vitamin D: 0.5 mg/100 g diet). We then analyzed the level of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) in serum and level of TC, TG in liver. We investigated antioxidative enzyme activities such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). We observed that weight gain was not significantly different in the experimental groups. Food efficiency ratio (FER) was significantly higher in the normal control group than the taurine and vitamin D groups (p < 0.05). The level of liver TC was significantly lower in taurine, vitamin D, taurine + vitamin D groups than control group (p < 0.05). The concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly lower in the taurine group than the control group. The activity of SOD was higher in taurine group than other experimental groups (p < 0.05), but GSH-Px and CAT were not significantly different. In conclusion, taurine has a positive effect on SOD activity but not on vitamin D. Also taurine and vitamin D have a protective effect as observed in liver TC in rats fed with a diet which lacks calcium.