Glutathione and Detoxification

One of glutathione’s primary roles in the body is to detoxify a number of drugs and toxins. Acetaminophen has been studied intensively in regard to its Glutathione-depleting properties, and with regard to glutathione’s ability to prevent APAP-induced liver and kidney damage.

Since GSH levels decrease with aging in all tissues, including the liver and kidney, older organisms are thus at even greater risk to APAP-induced liver and renal damage than younger organisms.



Lang’s group studied the effect of APAP on the livers of mice of different ages, and the extent of GSH depletion and recovery. In control animals, GSH concentrations decreased about 30 percent over the lifespan of the aging mouse, compared to younger animals.



Four hours after APAP administration, GSHlevels of the young, growing (3- to 6-month-old), mature (12-month-old), and old (31-month-old) mice decreased about 70 percent. The growing and mature mice recovered to near control values by 24 hours (94 and 66 percent, respectively). In contrast, old mice recovered only 41 percent in 24 hours (Fig. 5).

These results clearly demonstrate that the aging mouse liver is not only deficient in GSH, but has a reduced recovery capacity.This illustrates the danger of chronic administration of Glutathione-depleting drugs.

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