Intracellular compartmentation of glutathione in rabbit renal proximal tubules

The intracellular compartmentation of glutathione in rabbit renal proximal tubules was determined using digitonin, the non-ionic detergent Lubrol PX, and rapid centrifugation. Glutathione was distributed between two pools within the proximal tubules. The mitochondrial pool was the largest, containing 72 percent of the cellular glutathione while the cytoplasmic pool contained the remaining 28 percent. These results are in marked contrast to rat hepatocytes in which 85 percent of the cellular glutathione is cytoplasmic and only 15 percent is mitochondrial (1).