Whole blood-, plasma- and red blood cell glutathione and cysteine in patients with kidney disease and during hemodialysis.

There are conflicting results regarding the activity of glutathione (GSH) in patients with kidney disease. We examined whole blood-, plasma- and erythrocyte concentrations of GSH and cysteine in 12 patients with renal disease and in 14 patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Total plasma GSH concentrations were higher in patients with kidney disease than in patients maintained on hemodialysis (23.5 +/- 13.1 vs 9.1 +/- 7.5 mumol/l, p < 0.01) but erythrocyte concentrations of GSH were similar. Whole blood-, plasma and erythrocyte concentrations of GSH remained stable during hemodialysis. The total concentration of cysteine in plasma was significantly higher in patients on hemodialysis (556 +/- 258 mumol/l) as compared to patients with kidney disease (248 +/- 53 mumol/l, p < 0.001) but red blood cell concentrations were similar. Whole blood- and plasma concentrations of cysteine decreased significantly during hemodialysis. There were no significant correlations between serum creatinine and GSH or cysteine concentrations in patients on hemodialysis but when all patients were evaluated together, a significant correlation between serum creatinine and total plasma cysteine concentrations was observed (r = 0.52, p = 0.0017).