Introduction: Glutathione, a tripeptide normally found in nearly all mammalian cells, is the major intracellular non-protein thiol compound. Its metabolism in the body is described by the γ-glutamyl cycle. Glutathione has various important functions, including detoxification of xenobiotics and hydrogen peroxide and its role as an endogenous antioxidant. It can exist in reduced (GSH) and oxidized state (GSSG). The ratio of these two forms of glutathione determines the cell redox potential and is used as an indicator for oxidative stress. Determining blood and plasma concentrations of total (tGSH), reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) glutathione provides information on the oxidative status of the human organism.
Aim: To overview the recent analytical methods for quantitative analysis of blood glutathione concentration and to analyze their strengths and limitations.
Materials and methods: Systematic review of web databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar) on the problem.
Results: Identification of the strengths and limitations of three analytical approaches based on Ellman`s reaction, enzymatic and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), recently used for analysis of both reduced and oxidized glutathione in blood plasma. A critical analysis evaluates the HPLC methods as one of the most accurate and robust.
Conclusions: The HPLC is evaluated as one of the methods of choice for routine determination of low blood glutathione concentrations due to its excellent analytical performance.
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