Objective.To study the change of taurine transport

and taurine transporter（TAUT）and cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase（CSD）mRNA contents in hypertension and hypertensive cardiomegaly.Methods.Taurine content was determined with a amino acid analyser.Taurine uptakes were deter-mined by（ 3 H）-taurine incubation.The content of TAUT and CSD mRNA levels were measured by com-petitive quantitative RT-PCR in myocardial and vascular tissues of L-N ω -nitro-arginine（L-NNA）-in-duced hypertensive rats.Results.After the treatment of rats with L-NNA for28days

myocardial and vascular taurine con-tents decreased by11%and15%（P<0.05）

respectively

and plasma taurine level increased by13%（P<0.05）.Myocardial and vascular Vmax of taurine uptake reduced by30%and19%（P<0.05）

respec-tively.Their Km of taurine uptake increased by36%and17%（P<0.05）.Myocardial and vascular TAUT mRNA content decreased by22%and19%（P<0.05）

respectively

but CSD mRNA content increased by22%（P<0.05）and30%（P<0.01）

respectively.Conclusions.This study suggests that there is a decreased taurine content in myocardial and vascu-lar tissues of L-NNA-induced hypertension rats.The decreased taurine content may result from the de-creased number of TAUT on the cell membrane mainly due to the down-regulation of TAUT gene and TAUT affinity caused by hypertension and hypertensive cardiomegaly.