Taurine supplementation prevents hyperaminoacidemia in growing term infants fed high-protein cow's milk formula
- Resource Type
- Authors
- G. Boehm; Niels C. R. Räihä; A. Fazzolari-Nesci
- Source
- Acta Paediatrica. 85:1403-1417
- Subject
- Taurine
medicine.medical_specialty
Urine
Blood Urea Nitrogen
chemistry.chemical_compound
Internal medicine
medicine
Animals
Humans
Amino Acids
Blood urea nitrogen
chemistry.chemical_classification
business.industry
Infant, Newborn
Infant
General Medicine
medicine.disease
Amino acid
Breast Feeding
Milk
Endocrinology
chemistry
Aminoaciduria
Food, Fortified
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Urea
Infant Food
Hyperaminoacidemia
business
Breast feeding
- Language
- ISSN
- 1651-2227
0803-5253
Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and plasma and urine amino acid concentrations were compared between three cohorts of healthy growing term infants who were breast-fed (BF) or randomly assigned to one of two formulas either taurine non-supplemented (FF) or taurine supplemented (FF + T). The infants were studied from 2 to 12 weeks of age. Weight gain and growth in length was normal and similar in all three feeding groups during the study interval. At 12 weeks BUN was significantly higher in the FF group than in the BF and FF + T groups, 16.5 mg/dl vs 7.0 and 7.3 mg/dl, respectively. Total plasma amino acids (FF group: 240.5 +/- 110.1 mumoles/dl; BF group 180.1 +/- 28.7 mumoles/dl; FF + T group: 182.3 +/- 89.4 mumoles/dl) and total essential amino acids (FF group: 89.8 +/- 37.3 mumoles/dl; BF group: 56.1 +/- 16.3 mumoles/dl; FF + T group: 53.0 +/- 24.2 mumoles/dl). The urine amino acid concentrations reflected the plasma levels in all groups. These results indicate that taurine supplementation to a high protein formula lowers BUN levels and the plasma urine amino acid concentrations by some yet unknown mechanism to concentrations similar to those found in breast-fed infants with a much lower protein intake.