Effects of taurine administration in rat skeletal muscles on exercise.

To investigate the effects of taurine administration on exercise, we studied taurine concentrations in rat skeletal muscles after endurance running and the duration of running time to exhaustion, with and without taurine administration. For study 1 we divided 40 male SD rats into two groups: endurance exercise group ( n = 20) and sedentary control group ( n = 20). Each was further divided into two groups; one received distilled water ( n = 10) and the other taurine solution in water 0.5 g/kg/day orally ( n = 10) for 2 weeks. The exercise group performed treadmill running (60 min) once only after their nursing period. For study 2, we divided 10 male SD rats into two groups; one ( n = 5) received taurine 0.5 g/kg/day, and the other ( n = 5) received no taurine for 2 weeks; the two groups then performed treadmill running to exhaustion. In study 1, taurine administration increased taurine concentrations in leg skeletal muscles, whereas the concentrations were significantly lower in the exercised groups without taurine administration. Taurine administration reduced the decrease in taurine concentration in skeletal muscles on exercise. In study 2, the duration of running time to exhaustion was significantly increased by taurine administration. We concluded that peroral administration of taurine maintains the taurine concentration in skeletal muscle on exercise and up-regulates physical endurance.