Do Sex and Gender Interact with the Biological Actions of Taurine? A Critical Rereading of the Literature

Abstract

In humans, taurine (TAU) is a conditionally essential nutrient that exhibits pleiotropic activity in several and different biological processes suggesting its use in the prevention and therapy for a long time. However, its actual role in prevention and treatment is still incomplete and unclear. This review focuses on the potential therapeutic effect of TAU in genetic diseases, cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, hypertension), metabolic syndrome, and on the first pandemic of the third millennium, namely, diabetes mellitus and some gestational diseases such as gestational diabetes, intrauterine growth restriction, and pre-eclampsia, discussing the role of TAU in developmental trajectory. Previous preclinical and clinical TAU investigations predominately enrolled male animals, including humans, even though sex and gender differences play a critical role both in numerous physiological and pathological conditions. This review aims to outline some biological actions of TAU and evidences the sex and gender gap must be reduced in order to establish the role of TAU in prevention and therapy for all individuals.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases; developmental programming; diabetes mellitus; sex and gender differences; taurine.

Figure 1

Effects of sexual hormones on endogenous TAU synthesis. Abbreviations: S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM); cystathionine β-synthase (CBS); cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE); cysteine dioxygenase (CDO); cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase (CSAD); monooxygenase subtype 1 (FMO1).

Figure 2

Biological activities of TAU.