Alterations in tissue glutathione levels following traumatic shock

Many of the metabolic and physiologic alterations that develop in normal rats following whole-body trauma are not observed in rats made resistant to this stress by their prior exposure to sublethal episodes of trauma. These trauma resistant (TR) animals survive high doses of trauma that produce lethal traumatic shock if given to normal animals. This laboratory has studied several biochemical events following trauma in naive and resistant rats to better understand the cellular events in shock and the mechanism of resistance to this severe injury. In the present studies glutathione (GSH) levels in the kidney, liver, and spleen were determined at various time intervals after trauma in normal and TR rats. In normal rats 1.5 hr after trauma, there was a significant decrease in kidney, liver, and spleen GSH levels. In the kidney these returned to normal at 4 hr and increased above controls at 24 hours. In the liver GSH remained low at 4 hr and increased above controls at 24 hours. In the spleen levels returned to normal at 4 hr and remained constant throughout the time of observation. In TR rats no changes were seen in the kidney and an increase above normal values occurred at 48 hr in the spleen. In the liver of TR rats there was an early drop in the GSH levels, but these returned to normal at 4 hr and rose significantly at 24 hours. Alterations in the concentration of glutathione, a physiologically important non-protein sulfhydryl compound, may represent a mechanism by which cellular adjustment of the body occurs to stress and environmental agents.