A dog possessing high glutathione (GSH) and K concentrations with an increased Na, K-ATPase activity in its erythrocytes.

We have studied a female mongrel dog found in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. This dog was selected and examined thoroughly because she naturally maintained a high glutathione (GSH) concentration in her erythrocytes and did not exhibit any clinical signs or hematologic disorders. Erythrocytes from this animal demonstrated high K and low Na concentrations, as well as accumulation of the amino acids, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and glutamine. The Na, K-ATPase activity was also markedly elevated and the osmotic fragility of the dog's erythrocytes was found to be significantly increased. Crossbreeding of our dog with a normal dog and also with a heterozygous carrier dog revealed that the genetic abnormality possessed by our dog is transmitted as an autosomal recessive trait. All of the clinical data obtained from studying this animal strongly suggest that it possesses a genetic trait similar to that of the HK dogs previously described by Maede.