AJP - Renal Physiology, Vol 252, Issue 5 877-F882, Copyright © 1987 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Renal clearance of glutathione measured in rats pretreated with inhibitors of glutathione metabolism

R. D. Scott and N. P. Curthoys

Renal clearance measurements were performed in rats pretreated with various inhibitors of glutathione metabolism. Approximately 97% of the renal gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase was inactivated by infusion of AT-125. Within 4.5 h arterial plasma concentration and urinary excretion of glutathione increased from 4 microM and 1.2 nmol/h to 27 microM and 3,900 nmol/h, respectively. The ratio of excreted to filtered glutathione increased from less than 0.01 to 1. When renal glutathione was decreased to 35% of normal by pretreating rats with D,L-buthionine-S,R-sulfoximine, the subsequent inactivation of the transpeptidase caused only a two-fold increase in arterial plasma glutathione, and urinary excretion increased to only 70% of the filtered load. The filtered load of glutathione was reduced by intravenous infusion of purified gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase. At 1 to 3 h after infusion, arterial glutathione decreased to 0.3 microM. Under these conditions, the amount of glutathione excreted by an AT-125-treated rat was 40-fold greater than the filtered load. When similar experiments were carried out in rats that were pretreated with D,L-buthionine-S,R-sulfoximine and AT-125, urinary excretion of glutathione was decreased 10-fold, but it still exceeded the amount filtered. These results firmly establish that apical secretion contributes to the glutathione catabolized in the tubular lumen.

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