Isolation of glutathione from bovine thymus and its significance to research relevant to immune systems

A peptide was isolated from bovine thymus when a cAMP assay guided fractionation; it was glutathione. Pure glutathione (isolated and purchased) at 1, 10, 20, 40 and 100 μg/ml was active, P<0.05–0.01, in the cAMP assay. Glutathione was not active in the mixed lymphocyte culture assay, but was active in assays using T-rosettes. Glutathione may now be separated to avoid its biological interference in assays guiding fractionation to a thymic hormone(s). It is credible that glutathione was in fractions studied biologically and clinically by others. Knowing that glutathione may function in the transport of amino acids across membranes, and that L-alanine is essential for human lymphocytes to respond to mitogenic and allogenic stimulation, it seems possible that glutathione might be functional in the complex immune systems.