Glutathione as an inhibitor of trypsin induced proteolysis

Glutathione has been shown to inhibit trypsin induced proteolytic activity. A concentration of 6 mM of glutathione was found to completely inhibit proteolysis of 3H-proline labelled underhydroxylated procollagen as a substrate, whereas a concentration of 2.1 mM of glutathione caused 50% inhibition of proteolysis. When azocoll was used as a substrate for trypsin 50% inhibition of proteolysis was achieved with 1.4 mM of glutathione, though a complete proteolytic inhibition was attained at 4 mM glutathione. The results suggest that glutathione may be playing an important role in protein metabolism in a variety of disease and stress states.