Action of oxidized and reduced glutathione on rabbit red blood cell hexokinase.

Reduced glutathione at 1 mM concentration is able to mantain rabbit red blood cell hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1) in the reduced state with fully catalytic activity. At higher concentrations a marked inhibition is observed. In contrast, oxidized glutathione is a strong inhibitor of reduced erythrocyte hexokinase at all the concentration studied. Inactivation experiments show that some sulfhydryl groups reacting with oxidized glutathione are responsible for the enzyme inactivations. These findings suggest a cellular inter-relationship between redox and energetic metabolism coupled through glutathione at the hexokinase level.