Characterization of glutathione
Caracterización del glutatión
- Date
- 1888-1929 · confidence low
- Place
- Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Frederick Gowland Hopkins (characterization and naming, 1921); Joseph de Rey-Pailhade (earlier isolation of a similar compound, 1888)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins characterized in Cambridge, in 1921, a small peptide present in all animal and plant cells, which he named glutathione, later correcting its structure around 1929 to establish that it is a tripeptide (glutamate-cysteine-glycine) rather than the dipeptide he first believed.
A similar compound had already been isolated in 1888 by French physiologist Joseph de Rey-Pailhade, who called it 'philothion'; the exact relationship between the two findings was debated for years. Lower documentary certainty: the historical section could not be directly verified on Wikipedia.
What it led to
- discovery of glutathione's central role in cellular antioxidant defense
- understanding of its role in liver detoxification
- development of oxidative-stress biomarkers