Evaluating the effect of taurine and caffeine on the blood and biochemical parameters of rats

Background: Energy Drinks (Eds) commonly contain caffeine and taurine in their contents. They are generally consumed by adolescents. The abuse and the excess consumption of such drinks might induce near-fatal ventricular arrhythmia and cause cardiac arrest in young people. The present study aims to address caffeine and taurine's effect on the liver, kidney, and heart tissues of white Wistar Rats and evaluate their toxicity on the biological and hematological parameters. Therefore, 42 male Wistar rats (12w-old) were divided into seven groups; one control group and another six control groups, daily and orally gavaged with different caffeine and taurine concentrations. The hematological and biochemical parameters were recorded every two weeks.
Results: The values of red blood cells RBC and white blood cells WBC, in addition to the MCHC, were higher (P <0.05) than the control group. The activities of ALT, ALP, AST, LDH, and CK and the concentrations of cholesterol, urea, and globulin were higher (P <0.05) than the control group. Albumin concentrations were lower (p <0.05) than the control group. Neither statistically significant change in the other values nor change in body weight gained weekly were observed. Our results suggest that the pathological changesin the liver, kidney, and heart besides the hematological and biochemical changes result from taurine and caffeine's effect on rats. The toxic effects of simultaneous caffeine intake (CAF) and taurine (TA) were more severe to rats than their toxicity separately.
Conclusions: The tissues of the liver, kidney, and heart are sensitive to apotential toxic effect of Taurine and Caffeine. As a result, CAF and TA can lead to the emergence of some diseases in the liver, the kidney, and the heart by inducing changes in the tissues, including congestion in the portal vein and lymphatic infiltration, sinusoidal dilatation, hemorrhage, and necrosis in the liver. The damage can extend to include tubular congestion, congestion of capillary tubes, hemorrhage, glomerular degeneration, and necrosis in the kidney, as well as hemorrhage and congestion in the heart. The toxic effects of concurrent caffeinated and taurine intake were more toxic to rats than their toxicity alone.