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Ontogenic changes in hepatic glutathione and metallothionein in rats and the effect of a low-sulphur-containing diet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Misako Taniguchi  and
M. George Cherian
Misako Taniguchi
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Nutrition, Nakamura Gakuen College, Jonan-Ku, Fukuoka 814, Japan
M. George Cherian
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C1, Canada
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Abstract

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Metallothionein contains about 30% cysteine and is a major protein in newborn rat liver. This protein and glutathione constitute two major intracellular cysteine pools in newborn rat liver. When pregnant rats were fed on a soya-bean-protein diet, low in sulphur amino acids, the hepatic glutathione levels of the dams were decreased. However, this did not affect the levels of glutathione or metallothionein in the pups. The activity of the glutathione-degrading enzyme γ-glutamyltransferase (EC 2.3.2.2) in the livers of pups was maximum at birth and gradually decreased with age when the hepatic glutathione was transported to the kidney. In the pups born from dams fed on soya-bean-protein diet the decline in the hepatic enzyme activity was delayed, suggesting a continued degradation of glutathione in the liver. These results suggest that even with a maternal nutritional deficiency of sulphur amino acids, the transfer of cysteine to the fetus is not impaired. However, the hepatic intra-organ degradation of glutathione is continued in these pups for a prolonged period after birth compared with pups born from control mothers. The increased degradation of glutathione in the liver may be essential to meet the requirement of cysteine in pups born from dams fed on the soya-bean-protein diet.

Keywords

GlutathioneMetallothioneinSulphur metabolismRat
Type
Mineral Nutrition
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 97 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1990

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