Anti-fatigue Effect of Glutathione in Mice and Its Underlying Mechanisms

This study explored the anti-fatigue effect of glutathione (GSH) in mice and its underlying mechanisms. Mice were randomly divided into normal control, exercise-induced fatigue, GSH treatment and American ginseng (AG) control groups. The mice in the treatment groups were intragastrically administered with GSH (0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 g/kg mb) and AG(0.6 g/kg mb) daily before exercise, respectively, while the mice in the remaining groups were given normal saline. The experiment lasted for 10 days. The mice were sacrificed immediately after exhaustive swimming on the last day of the experiment to determine biochemical markers. The number of c-fos positive cells in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus was measured by immunohistochemically. Compared with exercise-induced fatigue group, both GSH and AG significantly prolonged exhaustive swimming time (P 0.05), GSH had obvious anti-fatigue effect in mice via peripheral and central mechanisms, and could be used as a drug candidate for relieving exercise-induced fatigue. © 2019, China Food Publishing Company. All right reserved.