Effect of glutathione depletion on electrophysiological characteristics of guinea-pig ventricles.

In this study the effect of acute and chronic glutathione depletion with L-buthionine-S,R-sulphoximine (BSO) on action potential characteristics of guinea-pig left ventricle papillary muscles were investigated. BSO caused significant decrease of maximum rate in rise of depolarization phase (Vmax) and duration of AP (APD) at 25%, 50%, 90% of repolarization in both cases of depletion and a slight but not significant decrease in the action potential amplitude, but did not modify the resting membrane potential. Pretreatment with bisaramil prevented the effect of BSO on APD in both cases of depletion.