Measurement of reduced glutathione (GSH) in human brain using LCModel analysis of difference-edited spectra

The concentration of reduced glutathione (GSH), an antioxidant, may be altered in various brain diseases. MEGA-PRESS was used to edit for the ¹H NMR signal from GSH in the occipital lobe of 12 normal humans. In all studies, GSH was clearly detected with a spectral pattern consistent with spectra acquired from a phantom containing GSH. Retention of singlet resonances in the subspectra, a key advantage of this difference-editing technique, provided an unambiguous reference for the offset and phase of the edited signal. Linear combination model (LCModel) analysis provided an unbiased means for quantifying signal contribution from edited metabolites. GSH concentration was estimated from the in vivo spectra as 1.3 ± 0.2 μmol/g (mean ± SD, n = 12).