The effects of taurine supplementation on obesity, blood pressure and lipid profile: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Taurine plays a pivotal role in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, blood pressure homeostasis, and obesity largely due to its cytoprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory actions. Despite promising data from animal studies in this scenario, the efficacy of taurine supplementation in human studies has been inconsistent. The main objective of this meta-analysis was to appraise the effects of taurine supplementation on liver markers and, secondarily, to explore anthropometric measures as well. Pubmed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched from inception to April 2020. There were 12 eligible peer-reviewed studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Most studies were conducted in patients with liver or metabolic dysregulation (diabetes, hepatitis, fatty liver, obesity, cystic fibrosis, chronic alcoholism, and cardiac surgery). The taurine dosage varied from 0.5 to 6 g/ d for 15 days to 6 months. Pooled effect sizes suggested a significant effect of taurine administration on systolic blood pressure (weighted mean difference (WMD): -4.67 mm Hg; 95%CI, -9.10 to -0.25), diastolic blood pressure (WMD: -2.90 mm Hg; 95%CI, -4.29 to -1.52), total cholesterol (WMD: -10.87 mg/dl; 95%CI, -16.96 to -4.79), and triglycerides (WMD: -13.05 mg/dl; 95%CI, -25.88 to -0.22); however, it had no effect on fasting blood glucose (WMD: 0.06 mg/dl), HDL-C (WMD: 0.90 mg/dl), LDL-C (WMD: -6.17 mg/dl), as well as on body mass index (WMD: -0.46 kg/m(2)) and body weight (WMD: -0.47 kg) as the anthropometric measures. These findings indicate that, in patients with liver dysregulation, taurine supplementation can lower blood pressure and improve the lipid profile by reducing total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.