Impact of chronic administration of anabolic androgenic steroids and taurine on blood pressure in rats

Supraphysiological administration of anabolic androgenic steroids has been linked to increased blood pressure. The widely distributed amino acid taurine seems to be an effective depressor agent in drug-induced hypertension. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of chronic high dose administration of nandrolone decanoate (DECA) and taurine on blood pressure in rats and to verify the potentially involved mechanisms. The study was conducted in 4 groups of 8 adult male Wistar rats, aged 14 weeks, treated for 12 weeks with: DECA (A group); vehicle (C group); taurine (T group), or with both drugs (AT group). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured at the beginning of the study (SBP(1)), 2 (SBP(2)) and 3 months (SBP(3)) later. Plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity and plasma end products of nitric oxide metabolism (NO(x)) were also determined. SBP(3) and SBP(2) were significantly increased compared to SBP(1) only in the A group (P<0.002 for both). SBP(2), SBP(3) and ACE activity showed a statistically significant increase in the A vs C (P<0.005), andvs AT groups (P<0.05), while NO(x) was significantly decreased in the A and AT groups vs controls (P=0.01). ACE activity was strongly correlated with SBP(3) in the A group (r=0.71, P=0.04). These findings suggest that oral supplementation of taurine may prevent the increase in SBP induced by DECA, an effect potentially mediated by angiotensin-converting enzyme.