Glutathione and glutathione peroxidase in sputum samples of adult patients with cystic fibrosis

AbstractBackground: Reduced glutathione (GSH) is a major antioxidant in the lung. In cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, extracellular GSH levels of lower airways, obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), were reported to be lower than non-CF individuals. Methods: Upper airway secretions of stable adult CF patients (29 spontaneous and 13 induced sputum) and non-CF individuals (14 healthy and 12 asthmatics; all induced sputum) were analyzed for total glutathione (i.e. the sum of reduced, GSH, and oxidized, GSSG, forms), GSH and GSSG levels by enzymatic kinetic assay. Results: In CF, both spontaneous and induced sputum samples were comparable in total glutathione levels which were surprisingly hi…