Effect of taurine in chronic alcoholic patients.

A study was undertaken to investigate the dietary effect of taurine in chronic alcoholic patients. The 30 chronic alcoholic patients with 2 to 5 times greater than normal activities of aspartate transaminase (AST) or alanine transaminase (ALT) were selected and equally divided into taurine and control groups. In the taurine group, each patient took 6 g taurine per day, divided into 3 doses, for three months, and then stopped treatment for 1 month. In the control group, patients took a placebo without taurine for 4 months. It was found that the AST and ALT activities and levels of cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), bilirubin, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) of serum plasma in the taurine group were all decreased, but increased alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activities and serum vitamins concentrations. Except for the level of TG, all were significantly different after taking taurine for 2 or 3 months. It indicated that taurine plays an important role in the properties of antioxidation and has some improvement on the liver tests of chronic alcoholic patients.