Glutathione system activity in the blood of overweight postmenopausal women

One of the important components of the antioxidant defense system is the glutathione system, the activity of which, when overweight, changes direction depending on gender and ethnicity. The results of studies involving overweight menopausal women are mixed. The study involved 61 postmenopausal women, who, after clinical and anamnestic examination, were divided into 2 groups: control (BMI = 19-24.9 kg / m2) and overweight group (BMI = 25-29.9 kg/m2). The use of hormone replacement therapy; the use of antioxidant drugs; diseases of endocrine genesis; exacerbation of chronic diseases; premature early menopause; surgical menopause was the exclusion criteria for women from the study. The lipid profile parameters with the calculation of the atherogenic coefficient; reduced and oxidized glutathione levels with the calculation of their ratio, the glutathione S-transferase and glutathione reductase activities were determined in the blood. Overweight women showed an increase in the triacylglycerols (p = 0.041) and cholesterol in very low density lipoproteins levels (p = 0.044). When assessing the glutathione system activity in women of the main group, compared with the control, an increase in the glutathione-S-transferase (p = 0.023) and glutathione reductase (p = 0.022) activities was noted, however, the reduced and oxidized glutathione levels, as well as their ratio did not differ from the control values. The results obtained indicate the activation of the glutathione system enzymatic link in response to changes in lipid status in postmenopausal women with overweight.