Glutathione and enzymes related to free radical metabolism in liver of rats fed a choline-devoid low-methionine diet.

Fischer F-344 male rats, fed a choline-devoid diet that leads to a highly reproducible sequence of biochemical and biological changes with an ultimate development of hepatocellular carcinoma, show elevated levels of glutathione in the liver at 3, 6 and 8 days. Several enzymes related to the metabolism of free radicals, including superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S-transferase and DT-diaphorase show neither increased nor decreased activity as measured between 12 h and 8 days on the diet. Thus, of several known cellular components related to the possible scavenger of free radicals in the liver, only glutathione responded to the feeding of the CD diet. It is tentatively concluded that a decrease in the levels of possible scavengers for free radicals is not a major basis for the nuclear and mitochondrial lipid peroxidation seen early in rats fed a choline-devoid diet.