Depression of the electroretinogram in rats deficient in zinc and taurine during prenatal and postnatal life
1998
Gottschall-Pass, K.T. | Grahn, B.H. | Gorecki, D.K.J. | Semple, H.A. | Paterson, P.G.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether zinc interacts with taurine to influence the development of the electroretinogram. Virgin female Sprauge-Dawley rats were bred overnight and assigned to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2 X 2 factorial design with two levels of zinc (50 micrograms/g through gestation and 50 micrograms/g after parturition; 15 micrograms/g through gestation and 7.5 micrograms/g after parturition) and two levels of taurine (2 or 0 micromoles/g) Guanidinoethyl sulfonate (10 g/L), a structural analouge of taurine, was added to the drinking water of the animals receiving 0 micromoles/g taurine. At postnatal day 23, male pups (n = 10) were weaned onto their respective diets. Dark-adapted electroretinograms wee recorded as function of stimulus intensity on 7 1/2- 8 1/2-week-old anesthetized pups. Two-factor analysis of variance demonstrated no interaction between zinc and taurine for a- or b-wave amplitudes or latencies (P<0.05). Zinc and taurine deficiencies each independently depressed electroretinogram a-wave and b-wave amplitudes but not latencies. The amplitude of the b-wave was plotted as a function of log stimulus intensity, and an iterative curve-fitting procedure was used to determine the maximum response, slope, and half-saturation constant. No interaction was noted. A significant treatment effect on maximum was demonstrated for zinc (P = 0.0498) and taurine (P = 0.0014). No treatment effects were evident for the half-saturation constant of slope. These findings indicate that zinc and taurine deficiencies are not synergistic in their depressing effects on the electroretinogram in this model.
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