الفهرس 
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Abstract
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes. The amino acid taurine is believed to play a protective role in diabetic retinopathy through the scavenging of the reactive species. It is not well established whether taurine uptake is altered in retinal cells during diabetes. Thus, the present study was designed to investigate the changes in taurine transport in the cultures of rat retinal M(Rh(Buller cells (RMC1) and rat retinal ganglion cells (RGC5) under conditions associated with diabetes. Using immunohistochemistry, taurine transporter was ubiquitously distributed over all retinal cell layers. Taurine uptake significantly increased in both RMC1 and RGC5. Taurine uptake was significantly elevated in both RMC1 and RGC5 under the conditions of high glucose. Low concentrations of NO donors, SIN1 and SNAP, increased taurine uptake in both RMC1 and RGC5 while incubation of these cells with high concentrations of NO donors tended to kill the cells. Finally, incubation of RMC1 with different concentrations of glutamate did not affect taurine transport while taurine transport significantly increased in RGC5 when incubated with high concentration of glutamate. Our data provide evidence of the importance of retinal taurine in hyperglycemic conditions and support the hypothesis that external taurine supplementation in diabetes may be a prophylactic substance against diabetic retinopathy.