Dorothy H. Henneman

Glutathione in Human Disease

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the effect of glutathione in various human diseases. Anemia lowers the GSH level when measured as the concentration in whole blood. Fever elevates the blood GSH index. The degree of temperature elevation and the duration of hyperpyrexia cannot be correlated with the level of the GSH concentration. The mechanism underlying this effect of fever is not known. In diffuse and severe liver disease, in patients who have no fever and whose anemia is taken into account by measurements of the GSH index, there is observed a marked reduction of blood GSH concentration. The cause for this depression is not established. Increased accumulation of ketone bodies and not merely the hyperglycemia might be related to low GSH concentration. The chapter discusses possible mechanisms underlying the low blood glutathione index in mental disease. It also discusses glutathione metabolism in normal and psychotic subjects in detail.

17α-ESTRADIOL: SEPARATION OF ESTROGEN EFFECT ON COLLAGEN FROM OTHER CLINICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL EFFECTS IN MAN

In rodents the effect of 17alpha estradiol upon collagen is identical to that of 17beta estradiol, but the 17alpha estradiol effect upon uterine lining is 1/1000 that of 17beta estradiol. Both steroids reverse the effect of D-penicillamine on rodent skin collagen. Five human beings with the skin collagen changes associated with D-penicillamine were treated with 17alpha estradiol for three to six weeks. 17alpha estradiol caused no detectable changes in blood pressure, breast development, menstrual periods, serum liver enzymes, serum proteins, plasma growth hormone, insulin, serum clotting factors, serum triglycerides, serum copper or serum ceruloplasma. In contrast, 17alpha estradiol increased skin prolyl hydroxylase activity, increased soluble collagen content in the skin and increased urinary hydroxyproline excretion. These studies with 17alpha estradiol, point out a specificity difference between the various sites of estrogen action in human beings.