Taurine content and amino acid composition of human acrosome

The presence and concentration of taurine was determined by amino acid analysis in human spermatozoa acrosomes isolated by the method of Srivastava. Taurine is one of the four amino acids whose concentration is higher in the acrosomal extracts, being only lower than histidine, methionine and lysine. It is worth mentioning that these four amino acids constituted 50% the free amino acid concentration in this organelle. The role that this high concentration of taurine, and also the presence of considerable amounts of methyl histidine may have in the functioning of the acrosome, is discussed.