Glutathione; is it depleted in T-cells and B-cells when lithium compounds are used as drug of choice in many psychiatric disorders?

ABSTRACT

Compounds of lithium are used as drug of choice in many psychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia etc. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of lithium on lymphocyte's GSH levels for which terasaki technique was used to separate T-cells and B-cells of human volunteer's venous blood. Experimental Study. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan. 1st December 2012 to 26 February 2013. One-way ANOVA followed by Dunnet's HSD test. Thiol quantification was done by using Ellman's method and was found statistically significant [p < 0.001] decrease in T-cells/B-cells GSH level which was dose and time dependent. T-cells/ B-cells dose dependent drop in GSH level was 2.752 micro M [9.41%] and 2.554 micro M [16.12%] by lowest used concentration [0.003 micro M] of lithium citrate. We have noted that there is significant drop in T-cells and B-cells GSH due to which immunological alterations happen which are linked with GSH contents of lymphocytes and hence inhibition in lymphocytes activity is co-related with depletion in GSH level of these cells which ultimately with the increase in Li+1 concentration cause further decrease in GSH level leading to cells death