Pretreatment with taurine facilitates hepatic lipid peroxide formation associated with carbon tetrachloride...

Pretreatment with taurine (3% aqueous solution, p.o., for 3 days) facilitated lipid peroxide formation in the rat liver associated with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4:2 ml/kg, b.w., i.p.) administration. The taurine pretreatment had no effect on the metabolism of 14CCl4 in hepatic microsomes and antioxidant content in the liver, but significantly enhanced the CCl4-induced increase in hepatic Ca++ content. Ca++ increased the Fe++-induced NADPH-dependent lipid peroxidation in hepatic microsomes, and this Ca++ effect was also enhanced by CCl4 treatment. These results suggest that the increment of hepatic lipid peroxidation following CCl4 administration may be, at least in part, due to the increment of Fe++-induced NADPH-dependent lipid peroxidation by Ca++, and the taurine pretreatment may affect the increase by increasing Ca++ content in the liver.