Recent studies show that glutathione, while being involved in the well-known physiological processes of amino acid transport and detoxification, can also play a part in cell proliferation events. Cell treatment with l-buthionine sulphoximine, which causes glutathione depletion, is accompanied by a decrease in cell proliferation. At present no precise relationship between this thiol and any critical intermediate of the mitogenic cascade has been proved. In this study, conducted on NIH/3T3 murine fibroblasts, we demonstrate a strict correlation between glutathione levels and platelet-derived growth-factor-receptor activation in response to stimulation and cell proliferation. The receptor autophosphorylation is severely impaired at low glutathione cellular levels. The interaction of glutathione with this growth-factor receptor in vivo, while being rather specific, is complex and may involve both cytosolic and extracellular receptor domains.
Involvement of PAR2 in platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐α‐positive cell proliferation in the colon of diabetic mice
