Taurine Intakes Increase Superoxide Dismutase Activity in Knee Osteoarthritis

The aim of this research was to determine the correlation between taurine intake with superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients. In OA, there is a state of oxidative stress that will increase the progression of osteoarthritis and the risk of disability. Superoxide dismutase is an enzymatic antioxidant which can suppress the increase of free radicals since early time. Taurine is known to have several roles in the human body, such as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective. This study used cross sectional design involving 56 knee OA subjects' grade II-IV, aged 40-60 years old that were recruited through consecutive sampling. Taurine intake was obtained by semiquantitative FFQ method. The SOD activity in whole blood was measured using RANSOD SD 125 with spectrophotometric method. The statistical analysis that had been done used SPSS with a correlation test. The intake of taurine was 59.77 mg per day and the SOD activity was 274.97 Unit per mL. This research found a significantly positive correlation (r = 0,284, p = 0,034) between taurine intakes and SOD activity in patients with knee OA. For the conclusion the taurine intake may have a role with the SOD activity in patients with knee OA.