Kittens were adapted to a semi-purified diet and then fed either a control diet that contained 0.1% taurine or a taurine-free diet for 6 weeks; at the end of the feeding period, kittens fed the taurine-free diet had plasma and liver taurine concentrations that were 0.38 and 0.15%, respectively, of those for control kittens.
Hepatic cysteinesulfinate decarboxylase activity in taurine-deficient kittens was 5× the level in control kittens, but hepatic cysteine dioxygenase activity was not affected by the dietary treatment.
Taurine-conjugated bile acids made up 98% of the total bile acids in the gall bladder of control kittens, but they accounted for only 44% of the total bile acids in the bile of taurine-depleted kittens; both the concentrations of taurine-conjugated bile acids and total bile acids were markedly decreased in taurine-deficient kittens.
No effect of taurine depletion on the fractional excretion of taurine in the urine was observed.
The kitten may have some mechanisms for adapting to a low-taurine diet, but these are clearly not sufficient to maintain tissue taurine levels in the absence of dietary taurine.