Unidirectional Transport of Reduced Glutathione in Rat Liver and Its Metabolization in the Extracellular Space

  • R. Hahn
  • W. Oberrauch
Conference paper
Part of the Proceedings in Life Sciences book series (LIFE SCIENCES)

Summary

Unidirectional transport for reduced glutathione (GSH) in rat liver has been found: no uptake by perfused rat liver was observed, but GSH efflux occurred at a rate of 8.6 nmol/min/g. Thus the fate of extracellular GSH was investigated.

When radioactive γ-glutamyl tripeptides were injected intravenously into rats, they were rapidly removed from the blood. Instant hydrolysis was observed. Undegraded tripeptides were detected in the blood exclusively. Within the tissues glycine accounted for all the radioactivity which accumulated first in the kidney. This was shown by autoradiographic studies and chemical analysis of the tissues. The rate of hydrolysis was drastically reduced after clamping the kidney vessels. Experiments with isolated kidney tubules revealed that γ-glutamyl transpeptidase can be considered responsible for the degrading activity.

From these observations it is concluded that extracellular hydrolysis on the luminal surface of the kidney brush border membrane and reuptake of the constituent amino acids has to be assumed for the fate of GSH released from the cell.

Keywords

Oxidize Glutathione Degrading Activity Constituent Amino Acid Unidirectional Transport Extracellular Hydrolysis 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1978

Authors and Affiliations

  • R. Hahn
  • W. Oberrauch

There are no affiliations available

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