Salicylate and liver glutathione.

The effects of sodium salicylate, benzoate, gentisate, m- and p-hydroxybenzoates, antipyrine, and 2:4-dinitrophenol on the reduced glutathione concentration of rat liver were determined. An increase in concentration in the male, but not in the female, rats was found after salicylate, benzoate and gentisate; after antipyrine, a comparable increase occurred in the females only. There is a relation, in these compounds, between capacity to increase the concentration of reduced glutathione in the rat liver in one sex and therapeutic activity in rheumatic fever.