effects of taurine on rifampin-induced liver injury

Background: rifampin (rif), which is among the first-line medications widely used to treat tuberculosis (tb), has been reported to be correlated with some side effects, including hepatotoxicity. the present study aimed to assess the hepatoprotective potential of taurine (tau) as an antioxidant against rifampin-induced liver damage in rats.methods: six groups of six male rats each (n=36) were included in the present study. rats were treated with rif (100 mg/kg/day) or co-treated with rif + tau (100, 500, or 1000 mg/kg/day) for 14 days. a single tau treatment at a dose of 1000 mg/kg/day was administered in order to examine its hepatotoxic effects. liver function test was used to assess alanine transaminase (alt), aspartate transaminase (ast), and lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) in blood serum samples of the examined rats. bilirubin was estimated along with liver levels of glutathione (gsh), reactive oxygen species (ros), total antioxidant capacity (tac), and lipid peroxidation (lpo).results: treatment with rif significantly increased ros and lpo in the liver, as well as alt, ast, ldh, and bilirubin in the serum. in addition, the hepatic levels of gsh and frap decreased in rats treated with rif. nonetheless, different doses of tua significantly ameliorated the rif-induced oxidative stress and impaired liver function.  conclusion: as evidenced by the results of this study, tua mitigated the liver toxicity induced by rif via inhibiting oxidative damage to the hepatic tissue in male rats