Effects of parenteral cysteine and glutathione feeding in a baboon model of severe prematurity

The availability of cysteine for glutathione synthesis is low in premature infants with respiratory distress. The effects of gestational age, oxygen delivery, and cysteine infusion or glutathione infusion, or both, on plasma total cysteine and other methionine metabolites were studied in a baboon model of severe premature birth with respiratory distress. Premature baboons were studied as part of the multiinvestigator National Institutes of Health Collaborative Project on Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Premature baboons, 125 d (69% of term) or 140 d (78% of term) of gestational age, were maintained in neonatal intensive care units for