Serum Glutathione in Adolescent Males Predicts Parental Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Background —Traditional risk factors account for only half of the morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD). There is substantial evidence that oxidative injury plays a major role in the atherosclerotic process. Thus, antioxidants may protect against development of atherosclerosis. Glutathione, an intracellular tripeptide with antioxidant properties, may be protective. Methods and Results —This case-control study compared total serum glutathione (tGSH) in 81 adolescent male offspring of parents with premature CHD (ie, before 56 years of age) and 78 control male offspring of parents without known or suspected CHD. Case offspring had significantly lower tGSH than control offspring. In multiple logistic regression with parental CHD status as the dependent variable, age entered as a covariate, and other CHD risk factors competing to enter the model as significant independent predictor variables, LDL cholesterol (odds ratio [OR], 2.15 [units=1.5 SD]; 95% CI, 1.21 to 3.82), tGSH (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.71), HDL cholesterol (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.78), and total serum homocysteine (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.35 to 5.02) entered the model as significant predictors of parental CHD status. Conclusions —Low tGSH in adolescent boys is a significant independent predictor of parental CHD, in addition to elevated LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, and elevated total serum homocysteine concentrations.

Plasma Total Cysteine as a Risk Factor for Vascular Disease

“…Low tCys might be a marker of low glutathione, however, which recently was associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. 31 Cysteine is the limiting amino acid for the biosynthesis of glutathione, 32 and this explained a possible link between these 2 thiol compounds.…”

Polymorphism in the 5′-Flanking Region of Human Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase Modifier Subunit Gene Is Associated With Myocardial Infarction

“…20 Previous in vitro studies demonstrated that GSH depletion inhibits nitric oxide production in endothelial cells. 21 We and others previously showed that GSH supplementation improves endothelial vasomotor dysfunction, an early event observed in atherosclerotic arteries, in the coronary arteries of patients with coronary risk factors or coronary spastic angina that imposes oxidative stress.…”

Immunosensing platform based on gallium nanoparticle arrays on silicon substrates

“…Typically, the GSH concentration is found to be 3.24 µM in plasma and 4.35 µM in serum (Galera et al 1996;Morrison et al 1999). A reduction of 22% of GSH in plasma (from 3.24 µM to 2.46 µM) is found to be related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).…”