The importance of taurine in animals was not understood until the old dogma of it being a waste product of sulphur metabolism was overcome. Since this time a growing list of physiological functions have been uncovered. In animals taurine is extracted in an unmetabolised form, and this means the compound is regarded as being inert. However, the fact that it is inert does not mean that it does not play a highly important role in animal and human metabolism. In terms of metabolism, mammals are not capable of sulphur reduction (only oxidation), and therefore sources of reduced sulphur in the diet must supply the need for reduced sulphur for metabolic purposes. In mammals this reduced sulphur can be found in the dietary amino acids cysteine and methionine, both of which are sulphurous amino acids, and both of which are essential due to their ability to supply the sulphur required for metabolic purposes. The metabolism of cysteine and methionine results in the formation of taurine, which is either excreted unchanged, or can be converted to the bile salt taurocholate.
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