Glutathione Metabolism in Cord and Newborn

a GSH instability, as well as a low activity of glucose 6-phosphate-dehydrogenase were demonstrated in those cells (2-5). A similar hereditary abnormality of the erythrocytes has been described in Jews originating from oriental and Mediterranean countries (6-10). It is associated with a susceptibility to hemolysis by various agents such as fava beans, sulpha drugs, para-amino salicylic acid and napthalene. Susceptibility to hemolysis by fava beans was also found in Italians of Sardinian origin and among Greek families residing in the United States (11-15). This hereditary abnormality is transmitted as a sex linked incompletely dominant trait with various degrees of expressivity of the abnormal gene ranging from full to nonpenetrance (9, 15). Zinkham and Childs recently described a nongenetic glutathione instability in the blood of normal newborn infants. This defect was associated with susceptibility to hemolysis by naphthalene as well as by vitamin K (14).