Glutathione depletion in survival and apoptotic pathways

GSH EXTRUSION IN APOPTOSIS Damaged cells opting for apoptosis actively extrude glutathione in the reduced form as an apical event in the apoptotic signaling (Ghibelli et al., 1995; Van den Dobbelsteen et al., 1996). Apoptotic GSH efflux is very rapid and, as a consequence, cells undergo redox imbalance and become susceptible to oxidative stress due to loss of ROS scavenging power (D’Alessio et al., 2003); moreover, the sudden redox disequilibrium causes the formation of inter-protein disulfides among reactive exposed cysteines, altering cell functions and signaling in a pro-apoptotic fashion (Circu and Aw, 2012).