Divergent effects of intravenous GSH and cysteine on renal and hepatic GSH

There is a growing interest in the therapeutic use of sulfhydryls. To assess the effect of glutathione (GSH) and cysteine on the cellular thiol status, thiols were administered intravenously to rats in doses ranging from 1.67 to 8.35 mmol/kg with and without pretreatment with 4 mmol/kg buthionine-[S,R]-sulfoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of GSH synthesis. One hour after administration of 1.67 mmol/kg GSH, the concentration of GSH rose from 5.2 +/- 1.0 to 8.4 +/- 0.9 mumol/g and from 2.5 +/- 0.5 to 3.7 +/- 0.7 mumol/g in liver and kidneys, respectively. After 8.35 mmol/kg, hepatic GSH did not increase further, but renal GSH rose to 6.7 +/- 1.8 mumol/g. Infusion of cysteine increased hepatic GSH to the same extent as intravenous GSH, but renal GSH did not increase after 1.67 mmol/kg and even significantly decreased to 0.6 +/- 0.2 mumol/g after 8.35 mmol/kg. In the presence of BSO, GSH resulted in a significant increase in renal but not hepatic GSH, suggesting that the kidneys take up intact GSH and indicating that the increment in hepatic GSH was due to de novo synthesis. The present data show that hepatic GSH can be markedly increased in vivo by increasing the supply of cysteine. Measurements of hepatic cysteine indicate that up to a concentration of approximately 0.5 mumol/g cysteine is a key determinant of hepatic GSH, such that the physiological steady-state concentration of GSH in the liver appears to be mainly determined by the availability of cysteine. At higher concentrations GSH does not increase further, possibly due to feedback inhibition of GSH synthesis or increased efflux.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)