Fluorometric determination of thiol redox state.

This work presents a fluorometric thiol redox state (TRS) method based on the thiol-specific fluorescent probe monobromobimane. It determines the concentrations of non-protein (NP) thiols glutathione, cysteine and N-acetylcysteine, the protein (P) thiols, as well as the contribution of these components to symmetric and mixed disulfides (NPSSR, NPSSC, NPSSCAc, PSSR, PSSC, PSSCAc, PSSP). The method is very sensitive since it measures as low as 30 pmol -SH groups in samples with a minimum of 1-5 mg total protein, making possible the measurement of oxidative stress-related TRS components even in biological fluids such as cerebrospinal.