[The antioxidant action of taurine in acute hypoxic hypoxia]

It was found that preliminary treatment by amino acid taurine protected rats from lipid peroxidation intensification (expressed in terms of malondialdehyde and conjugated dienes contents) in the liver, brain and heart under acute severe normobaric hypoxic hypoxia. The mechanisms of the antioxidant action of taurine are connected to the prevention of lactate accumulation in tissues and cell membrane structure disorders (expressed in a decrease of membrane Na+, K(+)-ATPase activity). It was also shown that taurine reduced significantly a decrease of glutathione antioxidant system activity protecting tissues against reduced glutathione pool depletion and preventing a decrease of glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase activities in acute severe hypoxia.