Junichi Azuma - Böcker

This volume comprises the edited proceedings of the International Taurine Sympo­ sium held in Osaka, Japan, in June 1995, as a Satellite Symposium of the 15th Biennial of the International Society for Neurochemistry. This Taurine Symposium was the Meeting latest in a series held since 1975 at approximately two-year intervals by an informal group of international researchers. It attracted contributions from 20 countries, ranging from Armenia via Finland and Spain to the United States. Some 121 participants attended. The Symposium was organized and chaired by Junichi Azuma, University of Osaka. Other members of the Organizing Committee in Japan consisted of Kinya Kuriyama and Masao Nakagawa, both from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and Akemichi Baba, from Osaka University. The Committee had to contend with the disaster of the Kobe earthquake, which struck on January 21. The epicenter was only around 25 miles from the meeting site, and the quake demolished the home of one Committee member. Despite this unnaturally natural handicap, the participants experienced a superbly organized meeting, one which more than maintained the high social and scientific standards established for this series. In his Welcome Message, Dr. Azuma listed a threefold objective for the Symposium: To provide a forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of information on taurine; to give an opportunity for renewing old friendships and making new friends; and to promote coopera­ tion among participants from around the world.

What is the physiological, pharmacological, nutritional, and pathological role of taurine? This volume is part of the mini series of Taurine Symposia proceedings. It is entitled "Taurine - Significance for the 21st Century", and was held from September 20-23, 2002, in Kauai, Hawaii and discusses the role and actions of taurine and attempts to answer this central question.

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is an enigmatic compound abounding in animal tissues. It is present at relatively high concentrations in all electrically excitable tissues such as brain, sensory organs, heart, and muscle, and in certain endocrine glands. Some of its physiological functions are already established, for example as an essential nutrient during development and as a neuromodulator or osmolyte, but the cellular mechanisms are still mostly a matter of conjecture. Moreover, there are a number of other putative functions of taurine less well known at present. Taurine 7 contains the proceedings of the 16th International Taurine Meeting. This meeting is a multidisciplinary symposium, with participants presenting different fields of biological science. This volume focuses on all aspects of taurine research from immunology and its effect on health to chemistry and biochemistry, including future clinical applications.

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is an enigmatic compound abounding in animal tissues. It is present at relatively high concentrations in all electrically excitable tissues such as brain, sensory organs, heart, and muscle, and in certain endocrine glands. Some of its physiological functions are already established, for example as an essential nutrient during development and as a neuromodulator or osmolyte, but the cellular mechanisms are still mostly a matter of conjecture. Moreover, there are a number of other putative functions of taurine less well known at present. Taurine 7 contains the proceedings of the 16th International Taurine Meeting. This meeting is a multidisciplinary symposium, with participants presenting different fields of biological science. This volume focuses on all aspects of taurine research from immunology and its effect on health to chemistry and biochemistry, including future clinical applications.

The Taurine Symposium- "Taurine: Beginning the 21'' Century"- was held September 20-23, 2002, on the beautiful island of Kauai in Hawaii. The headquarters of the meeting was the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort. This international meeting was attending by approximately 80 individuals from 23 nations and 4 continents. Seventy-five papers were presented either as platform presentations or poster presentations. Taurine, first isolated from ox bile in 1827 by Tiedemann and Gmelin and named in 1838 by Demarcay, became of significant scientific interest in 1968 when the first extensive review article was published by Jacobsen and Smith. Interest in taurine grew exponentially after 1975 when the first taurine symposium was organized by Ryan Huxtable in Tucson, Arizona. Since that date, taurine symposia have been held approximately every two years held in various cities and resort areas around the world. Taurine investigators have had the privilege of attending these scientific meetings on three continents - Asia, Europe, and North America. Since the initial meeting in 1975, a central question addressed during many of the symposia has been: "What is physiological, pharmacological, nutritional, and pathological role of taurine?". Although taurine has been established as an important osmolyte, it appears to affect many other biological processes. However, the exact mechanism(s) by "which taurine acts" has not yet been definitively answered. In Kauai, the patticipants discussed many topics and asked many questions regarding the role and actions of taurine.

The underlying philosophy of these two symposia on taurine remains the same as all those that have been held previously: the best way to remain current in the subject matter is to talk directly with the investigators at the forefront of the field. Thus, we brought together some 50 individuals from 11 different countries who have keen interests and active research programs in the many-faceted areas of taurine research. The meetings were held on October 8-10, 1991, in an elegant setting in a resort area at Orange Beach, Alabama, approximately 50 miles outside of Mobile on the Gulf Coast. The meetings were programmed as two separate Symposia held sequentially. The first symposia on October 8 was devoted exclusively to taurine research in the cat, primarily in the area of nutrition, and entitled "The Waltham Symposium on Taurine and Cat Nutrition". The second symposia on October 9 and 10 was open to all fields of taurine research and was entitled "International Taurine Symposium: New Dimensions on its Mechanisms of Actions". If the philosophy of these meetings was to bring both experts and novices together in a discussion and presentation of current taurine research, then the major purpose of the Proceedings is to document the current research efforts and to present an objective summary of where the taurine field stands today and where the focus will be in the future.