Methods to determine glutathione

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Reduced glutathione may be visualized using Ellman's reagent or bimane derivates such as monobromobimane. The monobromobimane method is more sensitive. In this procedure, cells are lysed and thiols extracted using a HCl buffer. The thiols are then reduced with dithiothreitol (DTT) and labelled by monobromobimane. Monobromobimane becomes fluorescent after binding to GSH. The thiols are then separated by HPLC and the fluorescence quantified with a fluorescence detector. Bimane may also be used to quantify glutathione in vivo. The quantification is done by confocal laser scanning microscopy after application of the dye to living cells.Another approach, which allows to measure the glutathione redox potential at a high spatial and temporal resolution in living cells is based on redox imaging using the redox-sensitive green fluorescent protein (roGFP)[56] or redox sensitive yellow fluorescent protein (rxYFP)