Plasma glutathione reductase activity and prognosis of septic shock

Abstract

Background: Our aim was to investigate whether plasma glutathione reductase (GR) activity is well correlated with the erythrocyte-reduced glutathione (GSH)/glutathione disulfide (GSSG) ratio and is associated with the mortality of septic shock.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted on male Sprague-Dawley rats and patients admitted to the intensive care unit with septic shock. To induce endotoxemia in rats, vehicle or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at dosages of 5 or 10 mg/kg were injected into a tail vein. Animals were then euthanized 6 h post-LPS. Based on the 28-d mortality, the enrolled patients were divided into the survivors and nonsurvivors. We obtained blood samples from patients at admission (0 h) and 24 h after admission to the intensive care unit.

Results: In endotoxemic rats, the erythrocyte GSH/GSSG ratio, erythrocyte GR activity, and plasma GR activity in the 10 mg/kg of LPS group were lower than those in the sham and 5 mg/kg of LPS groups. In patients with septic shock, decrease in plasma GR activity at 24 h was independently associated with an increase in 28-d mortality (odds ratio, 0.828; 95% confidence interval, 0.690-0.992, P = 0.041). Plasma GR activity was correlated with erythrocyte GR activity (Spearman ρ = 0.549, P < 0.001) and the erythrocyte GSH/GSSG ratio (rho = 0.367, P = 0.009) at 24 h.

Conclusions: Plasma GR activity was well correlated with erythrocyte GR activity and the erythrocyte GSH/GSSG ratio, and a decrease in plasma GR activity was associated with an increase in the mortality of septic shock patients.

Keywords: Glutathione; Glutathione reductase; Mortality; Oxidation reduction; Oxidative stress; Septic shock.