TAURINE – AN ESSENTIAL PLAYER IN DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMING

  • Reihmane, D. (Organiser)
  • Ole Hartvig Mortensen (Session chair)

Activity: Participating in or organising an event typesOrganising a conference, workshop, ...

Description

Taurine accounts for ~0.1% of the human body weight!

For decades, the amino acid taurine was believed to be a somewhat inert osmolyte whose main function was to regulate cell volume and be conjugated to bile-acids, as it is not able to be incorporated into proteins. As a consequence, taurine is mainly known as a component of energy drinks. However, this is far from the truth and taurine has many more functions in mammals than was first acknowledged and one of the main roles of taurine may actually be its importance in fetal development.

During the seminar, the importance of taurine as a nutrient will be briefly reviewed and its role in metabolism explained. This will be followed by an introduction to the field of developmental programming of metabolism. Finally, an overview will be given on our current research on the role of taurine in developmental programming of liver and skeletal muscle in mice and rats.
Period8 May 2023
Event typeSeminar
OrganiserRīga Stradiņš University
LocationRiga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of RecognitionNational