Glutathione homeostasis disruption of erythrocytes, but not glutathione peroxidase activity change, is closely accompanied with neurological and radiological scoring of acute CNS inflammation.

Objectives And Methods: The levels of glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity were measured in the erythrocytes of 50 patients with clinically isolated syndrome of CNS (CIS) and 57 patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Results: A decrease in GSH content and GPx activity showed significance in both study groups compared to the control values (p = 0.0025 and 0.007 for GSH and p = 0.005 and 0.003 for GPx, in CIS and RRMS patients, respectively). The depletions were more pronounced in RRMS than in CIS patients (p = 0.009 for GSH and p = 0.031 for GPx). The results significantly verify the negative correlations between GSH values and clinical severity (r = -0.513, p = 0.004), radiological findings (r = -0.351, p = 0.008) and disease duration (r = -0.412, p = 0.0025) in CIS patients. The same correlations were observed in RRMS patients between GSH values and clinical severity (r = -0.498, p = 0.004) and patients' radiological features (r = -0.454, p = 0.005). No correlations were observed between GSH values and other patient characteristics, or between GPx activity and all tested patient characteristics (p > 0.01).

Conclusions: The results indicate that GSH content and GPx activity both decreased below the normal range and were accompanied with neuroinflammation, but although both might have great importance in neuroinflammation development, the data presented here confirm that only GSH might serve as a marker which is closely correlated with neurological and radiological scoring of acute CNS inflammation.