Affiliations: Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate
School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan. Tel.: +81 3 5841 5131; Fax: +81 3 5841 8026;
E-mail: [email protected]
Note: [] Corresponding author
Abstract: We investigated whether or not the inflammatory cytokines affect the
activity of taurine transporter (TAUT) in human intestinal Caco-2 cells. Among
the cytokines, tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α) markedly augmented
the TAUT activity. A kinetic analysis of the TAUT activity in
TNF-α-treated Caco-2 cells suggests that this up-regulation was
associated with both an increase in the amount of TAUT and an increase in its
affinity. Considering these results, it seems that intracellular taurine plays
a role in the intestinal epithelial cells under such an inflammatory condition
as that caused by an excessive amount of TNF-α secreted by macrophages.
To verify this hypothesis, we examined the effect of taurine on inflamed
intestinal cells by using a co-culture system of Caco-2 cells with human
macrophage-like THP-1 cells. The result shows that taurine significantly
repressed the damage to Caco-2 cells caused by TNF-α secreted by THP-1
cells. Thus, taurine may be a useful substance against intestinal
inflammation.
