The Role of Taurine in the Reproductive System: A Focus on Mitochondria-related Mechanisms

The cytoprotective features of taurine (TAU), including anti-programmed cell death, membrane stabilization, antioxidant, anti-inflammation, osmoregulation, and intracellular calcium homeostasis regulation, have been well addressed in the literature. TAU has also been considered a potent agent for diminishing various xenobioticscaused by physiological and pathophysiological alterations through its antioxidant action in reproductive and non-reproductive organs. Hence, exogenous TAU administration is the topic of many in-depth investigations. Several studies revealed that the antioxidative effect, anti-cellular death, and anti-inflammatory effects of TAU are involved in inhibiting xenobiotics-induced reproductive toxicity. Hence, the exact targets of TAU during the intracellular routes related to mitochondrial functionality (such as mitochondria-mediated oxidative stress and cell death) triggered by xenobiotics are discussed in this chapter. The data collected in this chapter suggest that TAU could be highly protective against various kinds of xenobiotics-induced gonadotoxicity, spermatotoxicity, and steroidogenotoxicity (hormonal steroids’ genotoxicity) via its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cell death features. Furthermore, this amino acid also acts as an anti-apoptotic and anti-autophagic molecule by modifying the regulation of some related genes and proteins and inflammatory and mitochondrial-dependent signaling molecules.

Keywords: Antioxidant, Apoptosis, Autophagy, Fertility, Inflammatory response, Oxidative stress.