Causes of Very High Glutathione Transaminase« Back to Questions List

When glutathione is very high, the usual cause is liver damage.
Glutathione is mainly found in various cells, especially liver cells. The entire liver contains about 100 times the amount of ALT than the blood, and when normal, only a small amount is released into the blood, the serum activity of ALT can be significantly elevated.

In the acute stage of various viral hepatitis and drug toxic hepatocyte necrosis, ghrelin can be released into the blood in large amounts, so it is an important indicator for diagnosing viral hepatitis and toxic hepatitis.
The concentration of glutathione in hepatocytes is 1000-3000 times higher than that in blood, and as long as 1% of hepatocytes are subjected to necrosis, the activity of glutathione in blood can be doubled, so transaminase is a sensitive marker of acute liver injury.

The diagnosis of hepatitis is generally made by a glutathione transaminase level greater than 2.5 times the upper limit of normal and persistently abnormal for more than half a month. Serum ALT measurement has the characteristics of high sensitivity and low specificity for the diagnosis of hepatitis.

Many extrahepatic factors can also cause elevated GLTA, such as malnutrition, alcoholism, cardiomyopathy, cerebrovascular disease, or due to certain drugs that are toxic to the liver, such as isoniazid, chlorpromazine, salicylic acid preparations, organophosphates, etc., which can also cause elevated serum mid-glutamic transaminase activity.