“…The roles of taurine thus far elucidated include membrane stabilization, osmoregulation, bile salt formation, growth regulation, calcium homeostasis, and apoptosis modulation [31], all of which contribute to a cyto-protective effect against a variety of mechanisms of cell damage [32], including I/R injury. The serum level of taurine has been used as a sensitive indicator to evaluate I/R injury [33,34], and taurine has been applied in several animal models to protect organs from I/R injury. For instance, taurine protects intrinsic nerves of guinea pig detrusor strips against anoxia/glucopenia and reperfusion injury [35], electrophysiological function in skeletal muscle against both early and late ischemia-reperfusion injury [19], and hearts from neutrophil-induced reperfusion injury [36] and attenuates cold I/R injury in rat livers [17].…”