49] Preparation and use of glutathione monoesters

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the preparation and use of glutathione monoesters. Glutathione monoesters are useful glutathione delivery agents because they are readily transported into many types of cells and split intracellularly to form glutathione. Treatment of cells (in suspension or culture) and of intact animals with glutathione itself may lead to some increase in cellular glutathione levels; such increases are usually caused by extracellular breakdown of glutathione into its constituent amino acids and into dipeptides and the transport of these into cells followed by intracellular glutathione synthesis. Studies in which glutathione synthesis is completely inhibited, for example, by treatment with buthionine sulfoximine, show that administration of glutathione leads to little increase in cellular glutathione levels. Glutathione monoesters are transported into many rodent tissues, including kidney, liver, pancreas, spleen, skeletal muscle, heart, lung, and, in neonatal animals, the lens and the brain. Monoesters of glutathione are also transported into human red blood cells, lymphocytes, and fibroblasts.