Glutathione synthesis in normal liver and in Yoshida AH-130 hepatoma

The amount of reduced glutathione in transplantable hepatomas and in a primary DEN-induced hepatoma is lower than in normal liver. In all tumors examined, the glutathione decrease is not due to an increase of oxidized glutathione. In this paper the in vitro activities of two enzymes involved in glutathione synthesis, gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase and glutathione synthetase, are studied in normal adult rat liver, in regenerating rat liver and in highly anaplastic Yoshida AH-130 hepatoma cells. The activity of these enzymes was determined in the postmicrosomal supernatant fraction as nmoles of [U-14C]-glutamate incorporated into product per mg of soluble protein. In Yoshida AH-130 hepatoma, the gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase and glutathione synthetase activities are lower in respect to normal liver. This is in agreement with the low glutathione content observed in the hepatoma cells. On the other hand, in regenerating liver, there are minimal differences in comparison with normal liver.