Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 May;76(5):2249–2252. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.5.2249

Translocation of glutathione from lymphoid cells that have markedly different gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activities.

O W Griffith, A Novogrodsky, A Meister
PMCID: PMC383576  PMID: 36614

Abstract

Translocation of intracellular glutathione to the medium was studied in lymphoid cells (grown in tissue culture) that have very high, very low, or intermediate levels of membrane-bound gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, in the absence and presence of various inhibitors of this enzyme. The data show that glutathione is translocated to the medium by all of the cell lines studied, but that glutathione does not accumulate in the medium unless the cellular transpeptidase activity is either very low or substantially inhibited. Translocation of glutathione does not seem to be directly related to the activity of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase. The present and previous [Griffith, O.W. & Meister, A. (1979) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76, 268--272] findings suggest that translocation of intracellular glutathione is a general property of many mammalian cells. Glutathione exported from cells that have membrane-bound transpeptidase may be recovered by the cell in the form of transpeptidation or degradation products. Translocation of glutathione may also reflect operation of a rather general mechanism that protects and maintains the integrity of cell membranes.

Full text

PDF
2249

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Griffith O. W., Anderson M. E., Meister A. Inhibition of glutathione biosynthesis by prothionine sulfoximine (S-n-propyl homocysteine sulfoximine), a selective inhibitor of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase. J Biol Chem. 1979 Feb 25;254(4):1205–1210. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Griffith O. W., Bridges R. J., Meister A. Evidence that the gamma-glutamyl cycle functions in vivo using intracellular glutathione: effects of amino acids and selective inhibition of enzymes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Nov;75(11):5405–5408. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.11.5405. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Griffith O. W., Meister A. Translocation of intracellular glutathione to membrane-bound gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase as a discrete step in the gamma-glutamyl cycle: glutathionuria after inhibition of transpeptidase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Jan;76(1):268–272. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.1.268. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. LOWRY O. H., ROSEBROUGH N. J., FARR A. L., RANDALL R. J. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951 Nov;193(1):265–275. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Meister A., Tate S. S. Glutathione and related gamma-glutamyl compounds: biosynthesis and utilization. Annu Rev Biochem. 1976;45:559–604. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.45.070176.003015. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Novogrodsky A., Tate S. S., Meister A. gamma-Glutamyl transpeptidase, a lymphoid cell-surface marker: relationship to blastogenesis, differentiation, and neoplasia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Jul;73(7):2414–2418. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.7.2414. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Oliver J. M., Albertini D. F., Berlin R. D. Effects of glutathione-oxidizing agents on microtubule assembly and microtubule-dependent surface properties of human neutrophils. J Cell Biol. 1976 Dec;71(3):921–932. doi: 10.1083/jcb.71.3.921. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Tate S. S., Meister A. Affinity labeling of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and location of the gamma-glutamyl binding site on the light subunit. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Mar;74(3):931–935. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.3.931. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Tietze F. Enzymic method for quantitative determination of nanogram amounts of total and oxidized glutathione: applications to mammalian blood and other tissues. Anal Biochem. 1969 Mar;27(3):502–522. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(69)90064-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES