Metabolism of Sulphur Amino Acids I. the Uptake of Cysteine by Rat Liver

Abstract

Cysteine was administered to rats by stomach tube. or by intraperitoneal injection. In some animals the concentration of glutathione in the liver was first lowered to 10 per cent. of the normal level by injecting the animals with bromobenzene. When 30mg of cysteine were given by stomach tube, 75 per cent. of the cysteine taken up by the liver in normal rats was oxidized in 1 hr to products other than cystine. In animals treated with bromo benzene all the cysteine was converted to glutathione and no increase could be found in the oxidized sulphur fraction. In both groups of animals only traces of cysteine were present.