ROLE OF TAURINE IN THE CORRECTION OF METABOLIC DYSFUNCTIONS IN REPRODUCTIVE-AGED WOMEN WITH POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME

Objective. To study the specific features of carbohydrate metabolism, by using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and in healthy women and to evaluate the abilities of taurine to correct found metabolic dysfunctions in PCOS. Subject and methods. The study included 109 women aged 18 to 45 years, including 94 women diagnosed with PCOS and 15 apparently healthy women (a control group). A taurine treatment group consisted of 30 women with PCOS who took the taurine (Dibikor) in a dose of 500 mg b.i.d. for 3 months. At baseline, all the women underwent anthropometric measurements and a 3-hour 75-gram OGTT. These were repeated in the taurine-treated women following 3 months of treatment. Beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity were determined using the mathematical models: 1-st Phase, 2-nd Phase, ISISTUM, and MRCSTUM. Results. In all the women with PCOS, beta-cell dysfunction was a characteristic metabolic disturbance with its degree being variable. The most adequate insulin secretion in the early phase was in the PCOS group with peak glucose and insulin concentrations at 30 minutes during OGTT and the severest beta-cell dysfunction in the same group with peak insulin levels at 120 minutes of OGTT. Virtually ideal beta-cell function was seen in the comparison group of healthy women with peak insulin concentrations at 30 minutes of OGTT. The other control women also showed beta-cell dysfunction, but insulin secretion was more adequate in the first phase in this group than in the PCOS group. The degree of beta-cell dysfunction was evaluated using the mathematical models determining the sensitivity of peripheral tissues to insulin and the metabolic clearance rate of glucose and insulin levels were estimated using a mathematical model in the first phase. The ratio of these two components for each group was compared with the hyperbola reflecting the ideal beta-cell function, which corresponded exactly to peripheral tissue insulin sensitivity and which was unique to healthy individuals, indicated by a respective symbol for each group. The symbols of the comparison groups with different time of achieving the peaks of glucose and insulin (healthy women) were closer to the line of the distribution index hyperbola than those with the same time of the peak of insulin in the PCOS groups. The distribution index in the group of treatment with dibikor 1000 mg in the Taurine group after 3 months of its use came to be closer to the hyperbola line, which was proof that it was effective in improving beta-cell function in this group. Conclusion. Deciding metabolic dysfunction in PCOS is the individual inconsistency between the secretory function of beta-cells and the reduction in the sensitivity of peripheral tissue to insulin. The action of taurine (dibikor) is achieved by the modulating effect on the ratio of peripheral tissue insulin sensitivity to beta-cell function.

polycystic ovary syndrome, beta-cell function, insulin sensitivity, distribution index, taurine