Metabolism of glutathione in tumour cells as evidenced by 1H MRS

Grande, S.; Luciani, A.M.; Rosi, A.; Palma, A.; Giovannini, C.; Sapora, O.; Guidoni, L.; Viti, V.

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2007.01.025

« Previous Next »FEBS Letters
Volume 581, Issue 4 , Pages 637-643, 20 February 2007

Metabolism of glutathione in tumour cells as evidenced by 1H MRS

Edited by Miguel De la Rosa

S. Grande
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
A.M. Luciani
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
A. Rosi
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
A. Palma
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
C. Giovannini
- Centro Nazionale per la Qualità degli Alimenti e per i Rischi Alimentari, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
O. Sapora
- Dipartimento di Ambiente e Connessa Prevenzione Primaria, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
L. Guidoni
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
V. Viti
- Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute and INFN Gruppo Collegato Sanita’, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy
- Corresponding author. Fax: +39 06 49387075.

Received 12 December 2006; received in revised form 11 January 2007; accepted 12 January 2007. published online 18 January 2007.

Abstract

1H MRS signals of glutathione and of free glutamate were examined in samples from cultured tumour cells, namely MCF-7 from mammary carcinoma and TG98 from malignant glioma, with the aim of relating signal intensities to aspects of GSH metabolism. Spectra of cells harvested at different cell densities suggest that GSH and glu signal intensities are related to cell density and proliferation and their ratio is dependent on the activity of the γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase. The hypothesis is confirmed by experiments performed on cells treated with buthionine sulfoximine that inhibits the enzyme activity.

Keywords: 1H MRS, Glutathione, γ-Glutamyl cysteine synthetase, Tumour cells