Background of Glutathione

                                            In 1888, Glutathione was discovered. Glutathione is a ubiquitous and versatile functioning molecule that shortly after its discovery by J. de Rey-Pailhade, this (1, 2, 3) small tripeptide molecule was deemed so important with so many vital functions that it was considered coincident with the "origin of life."

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, born 1861 and dieded in 1947, of Cambridge University is also credited with a role in Glutathione's discovery and characterization and its name. (You can read his paper in our "Pages for Review" section). Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins received a Nobel Prize in 1929 for this discovery.

In many ways, glutathione is like a vitamin; glutathione has at least 15 functions within the body and there is a constant turnover of GSH in each person, with the liver occupying a central position in this dynamic flux (turnover of GSH in normal liver, estimated in humans, approximates 20% per hour).(4)

Restoring the bodily levels of glutathione involved certain scientific challenges because of the chemical subtleties and technicalities presented by the amino acids involved in its synthesis, which synthesis process can only take place intracellularly. Glutathione is synthesized within every cell of the body.

Dr. Dean P. Jones, Director of the Emory University School of Medicine Biomarkers Laboratory, has discussed a cysteine/cystine shuttle in which cystine is transported into cells reduced and released as cysteine. Alternatively, plasma membrane oxydoreductases could use cellular reductives to reduce cystine to cysteine without transport.(5)

This supplement is a key for the heath and care of your body. Please read the Glutathione treatment in our Review pages we have provided. We believe that the Glutathione supplement will do greate things for you.

                                           
                  1 - De Rey-Pailhade J. 1888a. Sur un corps d'origine organique
hydrogénant le soufre 1 à froid. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaire
Séances de l'Académie de Sciences. 16:1683-4. Cited in Glutathione
in the Nervous System, Ed. Christopher A. Shaw. Washington, DC,
Taylor & Francis, Page 4.

2 - De Rey-Pailhade J. 1888b. Nouvelle recherches physiologique
sur la substance organize hydrogénant le soufre à froid. Comptes
Rendus Hebdomadaire Séances de l'Académie de Sciences. 107:43-4.
Cited inGlutathione in the Nervous System, Ed.
Christopher A. Shaw. Washington, DC, Taylor & Francis, Page 4.

3 - De Rey-Pailhade J. 1888. Bull.Soc Hist Nat Toulouse, 173(1888).
Cited inGlutathione in the Nervous System, Ed. Christopher A.
Shaw. Washington, DC, Taylor & Francis, Page 4.

                  4 - Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice:
Nutraceuticals and 5 other biologic therapies. (Ed. Lester Mandelker,
DVM). January 2004, Volume 34 Number 1. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders
an imprint of Elsevier, Inc, © 2004., page 84.

5 - Jones, DP. "Extracellular Redox State: Refining the Definition
of Oxidative Stress in Aging." Rejuvenation Research Volume 9,
Number 2, 2006; pp. 169-80.