The tiny peptide in almost every cell
Glutathione
A three-amino-acid peptide found in nearly every cell of your body.
- Size
- 3 amino acids (a tripeptide)
- Made of
- Glutamate, cysteine and glycine
- First spotted
- 1888, in yeast
- Job
- Protects cells from damage
The story
In 1888, French scientist Joseph de Rey-Pailhade noticed something in yeast that reacted with sulfur. He called it "philothion", Greek for "love of sulfur".
In 1921, British biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins isolated it from animal tissue and gave it its modern name, glutathione. He first thought it was made of two amino acids. By 1929 he'd corrected himself: it has three.
Good to know
Your cells make glutathione themselves. It acts like a cleanup crew, mopping up reactive molecules that can damage cells.
It also has an unusual link. Normally amino acids join through one particular part of their structure, but in glutathione the first link uses a different part of glutamate. That small twist helps protect it from being broken down too quickly.
Did you know?
Three different Nobel Prize winners worked on glutathione's story: Hopkins, Edward Kendall and Vincent du Vigneaud.