Plasma glutathione of HIV⁺ patients responded positively and differently to dietary supplementation with cysteine or glutamine

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glutathione, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Patients with positivity for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV⁺) present low concentrations of antioxidant nutrients, including total glutathione (GSH) and its precursors.

The researchers investigated the responses of the sulfur-containing amino acid pathway to cysteine and glutamine (Gln) dietary supplements in patients with HIV⁺ compared with healthy controls.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 men taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

High-performance liquid chromatographic plasma analysis of sulfur-containing amino acids (methionine, homocysteine, cysteine, and taurine), GSH, oxidized GSH, and serine, glycine, glutamic acid, and Gln was carried out moments before and after 7-d supplementations.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and crossover.

Because people in this Glutathione study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

In the crossover set-up each of the men took both Glutathione and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Blood samples were drawn after an overnight fast.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acetylcysteine, Amino Acids, Sulfur, Antioxidants, Dietary Supplements, Glutamine, Glutathione and HIV Seropositivity.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and crossover study of Glutathione in 10 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2012 (Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.)), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Glutathione compound page, all human trials.