Reduced glutathione and glutathione disulfide in the blood of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-deficient newborns

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is commonly detected during mass screening for neonatal disease. We developed a method to measure reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione disulfide (GSSG) using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for detecting G6PD deficiency. The concentration of GSH and the GSH/GSSG ratio in newborn dry-blood-spot (DBS) screening and in blood plus sodium citrate for test confirmation were examined by MS/MS using labeled glycine as an internal standard. G6PD-deficient newborns had a lower GSH content (242.9 ± 15.9 μmol/L)and GSH/GSSG ratio (14.9 ± 7.2) than neonatal controls (370.0 ± 53.2 μmol/L and 46.7 ± 19.6, respectively). Although the results showed a significance of P