EFFECTS OF PROTEIN INTAKE ON GLUTATHIONE CONCENTRATION AND GLUTATHIONE ENZYME ACTIVITY IN MICE

The aim of the paper was to determine whether multi-generation selection for high body weight gains in experimental mice affects changes in reduced glutathione concentration and glutathione enzyme activity in the liver and kidney of subjects maintained on different protein level in their diets. The experiment involved 200 mice obtained from the Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Jastrzebiec (Poland).100 6-9 week-old Swiss male mice were sampled from a line selected for 24 generations for increased body weight (weights were 35±3.2 g) and 100 control subjects came from a randomly mated, non-selected line (weights were 25±2 g). The selected and non-selected mice received either a standard (16%) or low (10%) protein diet (n=10 animals per each subgroup) for 21 consecutive days. These diets were almost isocaloric (14.04 and 13.47 MJ/kg).The animals were decapitated. In their liver and kidney homogenates, reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration and glutathione transferase, peroxidase and reductase activity were determined. The reduction of protein level (from 16% to 10%) in diets of animals decreased GSH concentration and glutathione enzyme (transferase and peroxidase) activity in the liver and kidney of selected and non-selected mice. Glutathione reductase revealed a higher activity in the kidney of non-selected mice maintained on the low-protein diet.It may be suggested that GSH concentration and glutathione enzyme activity play an important role in cellular biochemical adaptation, significantly reacting to disturbances of physiological homeostasis. Prolonged selection for increased body weight did not influence the studied parameters.