The spontaneous and glutathione S-transferase-mediated reaction of chlorambucil with glutathione.

Incubation of 100 microM chlorambucil (CMB) with 1 mM glutathione (GSH) in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer yielded a mixture of GSH conjugates and hydrolytic products that were separable by HPLC. The appearance in HPLC analysis of four of these products was GSH-dependent. 35S-Label from 35S-GSH eluted with all four chemical species that also gave UV spectra characteristic of CMB-containing compounds. Mass spectral analysis of three of these compounds gave molecular weights consistent with the following adducts: adduct 2: diglutathionyl CMB; adduct 3: monohydroxy monochloroglutathionyl CMB; adduct 4: monochloro monoglutathionyl CMB. Purified GST alpha and partially pure GST pi and mu class protein prepared from adult male mouse liver cytosol significantly increased the formation of the monoglutathionyl CMB adduct. At 5 min incubations, this adduct was quantitatively most important and was increased 4.4-fold by the addition of GST alpha isozymes. At 1 hr incubations, all four adducts were measurable, although enzymes primarily affected the formation of adduct 4. At 1 hr, addition of GST alpha, pi, or mu protein increased the production of monochloro monoglutathionyl CMB 2-fold, 1.5-fold, and 1.7-fold, respectively, demonstrating that CMB is indeed a substrate for GST isozymes in vitro.