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The FASEB Journal, Vol 8, 448-451, Copyright © 1994 by The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Effect of glutathione depletion and oral N-acetyl-cysteine treatment on CD4+ and CD8+ cells

R Kinscherf, T Fischbach, S Mihm, S Roth, E Hohenhaus-Sievert, C Weiss, L Edler, P Bartsch and W Droge
Department of Immunochemistry, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany.

HIV-infected individuals and SIV-infected rhesus macaques have, on the average, decreased plasma cysteine and cystine concentrations and decreased intracellular glutathione levels. We show that the cysteine supply and the intracellular glutathione levels have a strong influence on the T cell system. A study of healthy human subjects revealed that persons with intracellular glutathione levels of 20-30 nmol/mg protein had significantly higher numbers of CD4+ T cells than persons with either lower or higher glutathione levels. Persons who moved during a 4- week observation period from the optimal to the suboptimal range (10-20 nmol/mg) experienced, on the average, a 30% decrease in CD4+ T cell numbers. This decrease was prevented by treatment with N-acetyl- cysteine (NAC). NAC caused this relative increase of CD4+ T cell numbers in spite of decreasing glutathione levels and not by increasing the glutathione level. Our studies suggest that the immune system may be exquisitely sensitive not only against a cysteine and glutathione deficiency but also against an excess of cysteine.


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Copyright © 1994 by The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.