Multiple mechanisms mediate the taurine-induced proliferation of neural stem/progenitor cells from the subventricular zone of the adult mouse. Mus musculus

Taurine was previously reported to increase the proliferation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) from subventricular zone of the mouse brain. The results of a study that aimed to understand the mechanisms of this effect are presented here. A gene expression profile analysis indicated that genes regulated by taurine have roles in proliferation, cellular adhesion, cell survival, and mitochondrial functioning. Together with additional functional analyses, the results suggest that taurine provides more favorable conditions for cell proliferation by improving mitochondrial functioning. Overall design: The total RNA from the control and taurine NPC cultures was used to produce tagged complementary DNA (cDNA) probes. Hybridation analysis used the mouse 65-mer oligo library from Sigma-Genosys to compare the expression of 23,232 gene-specific oligonucleotide probes for mouse.