Studies on agranulocytosis. III. The reduced glutathione (GSH) content of leukocytes of normals and patients recovered from agranulocytosis.

leukopenia which result from vitamin B-12 and folic acid deficiency has been associate(l with diminished GSH values in erythrocytes.4 The unusually high incidence of agranulocvtosis induced by chlorpromazine among the mentally ill, is probably a function of the large dosage of drug administered these patients.a However, the GSH index of erythrocytes of persons with psychosis was found to he lower than that observed in normals.6 A similar abnormality in leukocytes from mentally ill patients could possibly correlate with the peculiar sensitivity of this group to agranulocytosis. In view of these observations, it seemed desirable to investigate the problem of susceptibility to agranulocytosis in terms of sulfhvdryl metabolism of leukocytes. Previous studies from this laboratory7 failed to demonstrate a block in influx of sulfur#{176} labeled L-cystine and L-methionine into leukocytes of persons susceptible to agranulocytosis in vitro and in vivo, even when chal