Taurine levels in Trichinella spiralis infected versus noninfected rat diaphragms.

1. Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae caused a significant (P less than 0.05) reduction in the concentration of muscle taurine on day 10 and a highly significant (P less than 0.001) reduction on day 15 postinfection in rat diaphragms. 2. No significant (P greater than 0.05) taurine alteration was observed on days 5, 8, 30 and 60 post-infection. 3. Although taurine was found to be a constitutent of the amino acid pool of T. spiralis excysted larvae, its concentration was sufficiently low so as not to be a factor in adding to the taurine level of the host. 4. Carbon-14 labelled taurine was determined to be transported into T. spiralis excysted larvae. 5. The taurine pool in these larvae is probably derived from the host.