Taurine concentration in human gliomas and meningiomas: tumoral, peritumoral, and extratumoral tissue.

Taurine concentrations were determined in gliomas from 16 patients and in meningiomas from 15 patients. After imaging analysis and clinical evaluation to consider the level of functional deterioration by the scale of Karnosky, tissue was obtained by surgery. Tumoral, peritumoral and extratumoral samples were taken and analyzed by HPLC with fluorescence detector. The concentration of taurine (nmol/mg protein) was higher in tumoral and peritumoral tissues than in the extratumoral samples for gliomas. In the case of meningiomas, the taurine concentration was higher in tumoral than in peritumoral and extratumoral samples. These modifications might be due to specific functions of this amino acid, being either protective or involved in the proliferation of cells. The differential distribution in the two types of tumors could be related to the malignancy of them, which is higher in gliomas than in meningiomas.