The Role of Glutathione Metabolism in the Neuroprotective Effect of Mood Stabilizers

• Main Author: Pasiliao, Clarissa
• Other Authors: Li, Peter
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Bipolar disorder; glutathione; oxidative stress; mood stabilizer; neuroprotection; 0419
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/25888

Several lines of evidence implicate oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BPD). The mood stabilizers lithium and valproate have been shown to protect against oxidative stress-induced cell death. This study examined whether an increase in cellular reductive potential due to glutathione (GSH) synthesis up-regulation underlies this neuroprotective effect. Using primary rat cortical neurons as a model, this study demonstrated that unlike lithium and valproate, carbamazepine and lamotrigine do not exert neuroprotective effects against H2O2-induced cell death. Moreover, the level of GSH and the GSH:GSSG ratio in neurons and in rat brain remained unchanged following chronic treatment with either lithium or valproate. Similarly, this study did not find a significant effect of treatment on the expression of genes encoding γ-glutamylcysteine ligase sub-units, Gclc and Gclm, in both neurons and the rat brain. These findings suggest that other molecular targets of lithium and valproate likely mediate the observed neuroprotective effects.