Sulfur amino acid metabolism in the developing rhesus monkey brain: interrelationship of taurine and glutamate.

The relationship of taurine to glutamate, and to other amino acids, has been examined in the occipital lobe of the developing rhesus monkey. During development taurine decreases in concentration (4.96 mumol/g in fetus to 1.52 mumol/g in adult) while glutamate increases (7.92 mumol/g in fetus to 11.26 mumol/g in adult). When the concentration of taurine is plotted against that of glutamate in fetal, neonatal and adult animals there is a significant correlation in the fetal (p less than 0.01) and adult (p less than 0.01) but not in the neonatal occipital lobe samples. This correlation in both fetal and adult brain is specific for these amino acids. Subcellular fractionation studies further indicate that this relationship may be of special importance in nerve endings.