Determination of oxidized, reduced and protein-bound glutathione in eye lenses by high-performance liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection.

A method for the detection of oxidized, reduced and protein-bound glutathione in eye lenses has been developed. Homogenized lens samples are deproteinated with acetonitrile and perchloric acid. Protein-bound glutathione is reduced by 1,4-dithiothreitol. Separation of the different forms of glutathione and dithiothreitol is performed by ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with sodium octylsulphate as the ion-pairing agent. The compounds are detected amperometrically using on-line-generated bromine, which oxidizes thiols and disulphides. In this way two samples can be analysed in triplicate in a single day. The lower detection limits are 80 and 48 nmol per gram wet lens for reduced and oxidized glutathione, respectively. The amounts of free reduced and protein-bound glutathione in calf lenses, determined with this method, are 6.8 +/- 0.4 and 0.96 +/- 0.03 mumol per gram wet lens, respectively. That of oxidized glutathione is less than 0.048 mumol per gram wet lens.