Glutathione status of placentae from differently polluted regions of Ukraine

Abstract A study of the glutathione status as a prerequisite of the detoxifying activity of the fetoplacental barrier was undertaken in different regions of the Ukraine that have been judged either ‘clean’, chemically polluted or radioactively contaminated with different summary effective equivalent annual expositional doses (SEEAED). In the samples from clean regions, cytosolic glutathione transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GSSG-R) activities and contents of total SH-groups were higher than in contaminated areas and corresponded to 50.4 ± 9.0, 13.6 ± 1.8 mU/mg cytosolic protein and 30.2 ± 5.7 μmol/g tissue, respectively. In heavily radioactively exposed women, e.g. ‘liquidators’ (SEEAED in 1986: > 5 mSv), low GST activity, 17.0 ± 3.0 mU/mg cytosolic protein and high malonic dialdehyde concentration, 128.8 ± 13 nmol/g tissue were found; the latter serves as a measure of lipid peroxidation. In the placental specimens from heavily exposed women, the distribution of GSTπ-specific antigen along the villi was irregular and differed from specimens of unexposed women. Malonic dialdehyde concentrations in all other groups of women were in the range 37.1–69.2 nmol/g tissue. In less exposed women, e.g. Kiev citizens and those from some rural areas (SEEAED in 1986: 4.9 and