This volume is the selected, edited proceedings of the International Taurine Sympo- th sium held in Tucson, Arizona, in July 1997. The meeting was a satellite symposium ofthe 16 Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry, which was held in Boston immediately following the Tucson meeting. In view of the desert location of Tucson, the meeting was advertised tongue-in-cheek as being the hottest scientific meeting ever. As the weather lived up to its billing, the Symposium may well have earned the title. The meeting was held in an atmospheric cluster of adobe buildings, old by the stan- dards of the American southwest, at the Westward Look Resort in the Sonoran Desert foot- hills of Tucson, which is overlooked by the 9000' high Santa Catalina mountains. As is the norm for taurine symposia, participants formed a multinational group, with representatives from China, Korea, Japan, United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Armenia. The meeting was organized around plenary lectures by Russell Chesney (University of Tennessee: Taurine and infant nutrition), Herminia Pasantes-Morales (National Autono- mous University of Mexico: Taurine: An osmolyte in mammalian tissues) and Kinya Kuri- yama (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine: Interrelationship between taurine and GABA).

The underlying philosophy of these two symposia on taurine remains the same as all those that have been held previously: the best way to remain current in the subject matter is to talk directly with the investigators at the forefront of the field. Thus, we brought together some 50 individuals from 11 different countries who have keen interests and active research programs in the many-faceted areas of taurine research. The meetings were held on October 8-10, 1991, in an elegant setting in a resort area at Orange Beach, Alabama, approximately 50 miles outside of Mobile on the Gulf Coast. The meetings were programmed as two separate Symposia held sequentially. The first symposia on October 8 was devoted exclusively to taurine research in the cat, primarily in the area of nutrition, and entitled "The Waltham Symposium on Taurine and Cat Nutrition". The second symposia on October 9 and 10 was open to all fields of taurine research and was entitled "International Taurine Symposium: New Dimensions on its Mechanisms of Actions". If the philosophy of these meetings was to bring both experts and novices together in a discussion and presentation of current taurine research, then the major purpose of the Proceedings is to document the current research efforts and to present an objective summary of where the taurine field stands today and where the focus will be in the future.

The Taurine Symposium- "Taurine: Beginning the 21'' Century"- was held September 20-23, 2002, on the beautiful island of Kauai in Hawaii. The headquarters of the meeting was the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort. This international meeting was attending by approximately 80 individuals from 23 nations and 4 continents. Seventy-five papers were presented either as platform presentations or poster presentations. Taurine, first isolated from ox bile in 1827 by Tiedemann and Gmelin and named in 1838 by Demarcay, became of significant scientific interest in 1968 when the first extensive review article was published by Jacobsen and Smith. Interest in taurine grew exponentially after 1975 when the first taurine symposium was organized by Ryan Huxtable in Tucson, Arizona. Since that date, taurine symposia have been held approximately every two years held in various cities and resort areas around the world. Taurine investigators have had the privilege of attending these scientific meetings on three continents - Asia, Europe, and North America. Since the initial meeting in 1975, a central question addressed during many of the symposia has been: "What is physiological, pharmacological, nutritional, and pathological role of taurine?". Although taurine has been established as an important osmolyte, it appears to affect many other biological processes. However, the exact mechanism(s) by "which taurine acts" has not yet been definitively answered. In Kauai, the patticipants discussed many topics and asked many questions regarding the role and actions of taurine.

The first Taurine Symposium organized by Dr. Ryan Huxtable and the late Dr. Andre Barbeau was held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1975. Since that auspici ous event, nine international symposia on the role of taurine in biology have taken place. The locations for these meetings have been Tucson (two times), Rome, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Vancouver, Mexico City, Helsinki, and Florence. In 1977, due to the large number of scientists in Japan who were interested in the role of this unique amino acid in biological systems, we organized the Japanese Research Society on Sulfur Amino Acids with the encouragement and financial assistance of the Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Tokyo). Annual meetings have been held, and the membership has expanded from 78 to 414 in 1987; the number of presentations has increased during this time span from 29 to 74. The symposium in Tokyo in 1982, "Sulfur Amino Acids, Biochemical and Clinical Aspects" [1], was held to celebrate the 5th Annual Meeting of our Society. I would like to emphasize that in Japan we have an active Research Society especially directed to the study of sulfur amino acids. We have published our own semi-annual journal entitled Sulfur Amino Acids. Our society is an inter disciplinary research society since taurine is a highly diversified compound that interconnects physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, nutrition, and medicine. One exciting fringe benefit of taurine research and the society has been the fostering of contacts with distinguished scientists from many varied medical fields.

The Taurine Symposium- "Taurine: Beginning the 21'' Century"- was held September 20-23, 2002, on the beautiful island of Kauai in Hawaii. The headquarters of the meeting was the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort. This international meeting was attending by approximately 80 individuals from 23 nations and 4 continents. Seventy-five papers were presented either as platform presentations or poster presentations. Taurine, first isolated from ox bile in 1827 by Tiedemann and Gmelin and named in 1838 by Demarcay, became of significant scientific interest in 1968 when the first extensive review article was published by Jacobsen and Smith. Interest in taurine grew exponentially after 1975 when the first taurine symposium was organized by Ryan Huxtable in Tucson, Arizona. Since that date, taurine symposia have been held approximately every two years held in various cities and resort areas around the world. Taurine investigators have had the privilege of attending these scientific meetings on three continents - Asia, Europe, and North America. Since the initial meeting in 1975, a central question addressed during many of the symposia has been: "What is physiological, pharmacological, nutritional, and pathological role of taurine?." Although taurine has been established as an important osmolyte, it appears to affect many other biological processes. However, the exact mechanism(s) by "which taurine acts" has not yet been definitively answered. In Kauai, the patticipants discussed many topics and asked many questions regarding the role and actions of taurine.

This volume is the selected, edited proceedings of the International Taurine Sympo- th sium held in Tucson, Arizona, in July 1997. The meeting was a satellite symposium ofthe 16 Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry, which was held in Boston immediately following the Tucson meeting. In view of the desert location of Tucson, the meeting was advertised tongue-in-cheek as being the hottest scientific meeting ever. As the weather lived up to its billing, the Symposium may well have earned the title. The meeting was held in an atmospheric cluster of adobe buildings, old by the stan- dards of the American southwest, at the Westward Look Resort in the Sonoran Desert foot- hills of Tucson, which is overlooked by the 9000' high Santa Catalina mountains. As is the norm for taurine symposia, participants formed a multinational group, with representatives from China, Korea, Japan, United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Armenia. The meeting was organized around plenary lectures by Russell Chesney (University of Tennessee: Taurine and infant nutrition), Herminia Pasantes-Morales (National Autono- mous University of Mexico: Taurine: An osmolyte in mammalian tissues) and Kinya Kuri- yama (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine: Interrelationship between taurine and GABA).

The first Taurine Symposium organized by Dr. Ryan Huxtable and the late Dr. Andre Barbeau was held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1975. Since that auspici ous event, nine international symposia on the role of taurine in biology have taken place. The locations for these meetings have been Tucson (two times), Rome, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Vancouver, Mexico City, Helsinki, and Florence. In 1977, due to the large number of scientists in Japan who were interested in the role of this unique amino acid in biological systems, we organized the Japanese Research Society on Sulfur Amino Acids with the encouragement and financial assistance of the Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Tokyo). Annual meetings have been held, and the membership has expanded from 78 to 414 in 1987; the number of presentations has increased during this time span from 29 to 74. The symposium in Tokyo in 1982, "Sulfur Amino Acids, Biochemical and Clinical Aspects" 1], was held to celebrate the 5th Annual Meeting of our Society. I would like to emphasize that in Japan we have an active Research Society especially directed to the study of sulfur amino acids. We have published our own semi-annual journal entitled Sulfur Amino Acids. Our society is an inter disciplinary research society since taurine is a highly diversified compound that interconnects physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, nutrition, and medicine. One exciting fringe benefit of taurine research and the society has been the fostering of contacts with distinguished scientists from many varied medical fields."

Review: Taurine Deficiency and the Cat.- Taurine Synthesis in Cat and Mouse In Vivo and In Vitro.- Amino Acid Interaction with Taurine Metabolism in Cats.- The Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Cysteic Acid on the Plasma Taurine Concentration of Cats Maintained on a Taurine-Restricted Diet.- The Metabolic Basis for the Taurine Requirement of Cats.- Intestinal Taurine and the Enterohepatic Circulation of Taurocholic Acid in the Cat.- Urinary Excretion of Taurine as a Function of Taurine Intake: Potential for Estimating Taurine Bioavailability in the Adult Cat.- Dilated Cardiomyopathy Associated with Taurine Deficiency in the Domestic Cat: Relationship to Diet and Myocardial Taurine Content.- Reduction of Intrinsic Contractile Function of the Left Ventricle by Taurine Deficiency in Cats.- "Activation" of Alveolar Leukocytes Isolated from Cats Fed Taurine-free Diets.- High Dietary Taurine and Feline Reproduction.- Taurine Distribution in the Cat Muscle: An Immunohistochemical Study.- Review: Myocardial Physiological Effects of Taurine and Their Significance.- Sarcolemmal Actions of Taurine Linked to Altered Phospholipid N-methylation.- Taurine Effects on Ionic Currents in Myocardial Cells.- Taurine Attenuates Contracture Induced by Perfusion with Low Sodium, High Calcium Medium in Chick Hearts.- Effect of Taurine on Intracellular Calcium Dynamics of Cultured Myocardial Cells During the Calcium Paradox.- Intracellular Effects of Taurine: Studies on Skinned Cardiac Preparations.- Effects of Taurine Deficiency on Arrhythmogenesis and Excitation-contraction Coupling in Cardiac Tissue.- Taurine Potentiates the Antiaggregatory Action of Aspirin and Indomethacin.- Antiarrhythmic Action of Taurine.- Mechanism Underlying Physiological Modulation of Myocardial Contraction by Taurine.- Effects of Taurine Depletion on Membrane Electrical Properties of Rat Skeletal Muscle.- Regression of Taurine Depletion in Rhesus Monkeys Deprived of Dietary Taurine Throughout the First Year.- Taurine Transport in the Mouse Cerebral Cortex During Development and Ageing.- Phospholipids, Phospholipid Methylation and Taurine Content in Synaptosomes of Developing Rat Brain.- The Effect of Taurine on the Age-related Decline of the Immune Response in Mice: the Restorative Effect on the T Cell Proliferative Response to Costimulation with Ionomycin and Phorbol Myristate Acetate.- Effects of Taurine Deficiency on Immune Function in Mice.- Review: Recent Studies on Taurine in the Central Nervous System.- Pathologies of the CNS and Associated Taurine Changes.- Taurine Receptor: Kinetic Analysis and Pharmacological Studies.- Evoked Endogenous Taurine Release from Cultured Cerebellar Neurons.- Effect of Hepes on the Uptake of Taurine by Cultured Nervous Cells.- The Trophic Role of Taurine in the Retina. A Possible Mechanism of Action.- Endogenous Regulation of the Taurine Receptor.- Localization of Taurine and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein in Human Optic Nerve Using Immunocytochemical Techniques.- Effects of Taurine on Protein Phosphorylation in Mammalian Tissues.- Taurine Protection of Lungs in Hamster Models of Oxidant Injury: a Morphologic Time Study of Paraquat and Bleomycin Treatment.- Taurine and Niacin Offer a Novel Therapeutic Modality in Prevention of Chemically-induced Pulmonary Fibrosis in Hamsters.- Taurine Protects Against Oxidant Injury to Rat Alveolar Pneumocytes.- The Protective Effect of Taurine on the Biomembrane Against Damage Produced by the Oxygen Radical.- Volume Regulatory Fluxes in Glial and Renal Cells.- Cell Volume Changes and Taurine Release in Cerebral Cortical Slices.- L-Glutamate-induced Swelling of Cultured Astrocytes.- Taurine and Volume Regulation in Isolated Nerve Endings.- Hyperosmolarity and Taurine Content, Uptake and Release in Astrocytes.- GABA and Taurine Serve as Respectively a Neurotransmitter and an Osmolyte in Cultured Cerebral Cortical Neurons.- Potassium-stimulated Release of Taurine in A Crude Retinal Preparation O...