Cysteamine, penicillamine, glutathione, and their derivatives analyzed by automated ion exchange column chromatography

Abstract Amino thiols have been measured by automatic amino acid analysis after blockage of the SH group by reagents such as iodoacetic acid, iodoacetamide, and N -ethylmaleimide. Elution characteristics for these derivatives for penicillamine, cysteamine, and glutathione are described. Cysteamine has been measured in rat plasma after oral administration (stomach tube). It had a biological half-life in rat plasma of 1.7 hr. Glutathione as its iodoacetamide derivative can be measured simultaneously with cystine in extracts of fibroblast cells of patients with cystinosis. This will be valuable for investigations of the metabolic defect in cystinosis, but the technique has certain difficulties which interfere with the accuracy of the analysis.