Glutathione content of human malignant melanoma cell lines: correlation of flow cytometric and biochemical assays, and application to human tumour aspirates.

We measured the glutathione content of a panel of human malignant melanoma cell lines by flow cytometry after staining with mercury orange, using visible light (488 nm) excitation, and compared the values obtained with those measured biochemically using a modified Tietze assay. Glutathione levels were depleted by culturing cells with various concentrations of buthionine sulphoximine to provide a suitable spread of glutathione concentrations. The two assays showed good correlation (r = 0.93). We found a number of technical factors to be critically important. In particular, the conditions of staining, cell number, and method of mixing media, cells and stain were responsible for wide variations in fluorescence intensity. We applied the flow cytometric technique to cell suspensions obtained by fine needle aspiration biopsy of human malignant melanoma deposits, and observed a proportion of cells with high glutathione levels in many samples. The results confirm the feasibility of measuring glutathione content by visible light flow cytometry, and raise the possibility of monitoring glutathione content as an indicator of drug resistance in clinical therapy of human malignant melanoma.