Electrocatalytic determination of reduced glutathione in human erythrocytes

The determination of reduced glutathione (GSH) in human erythrocytes using a simple, fast and sensitive method employing a glassy carbon electrode modified with cobalt tetrasulfonated phthalocyanine (CoTSPc) immobilized in poly(l-lysine) (PLL) film was investigated. This modified electrode showed very efficient electrocatalytic activity for anodic oxidation of GSH, decreasing substantially the anodic overpotentials for 0.2 V versus Ag/AgCl. The modified electrode presented better performance in 0.1 mol l−1 piperazine-N,N′-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid) buffer at pH 7.4. The other experimental parameters, such as the concentration of CoTSPc and PLL in the membrane preparation, pH, type of buffer solution and applied potential, were optimized. Under optimized operational conditions, a linear response from 50 to 2,160 nmol l−1 was obtained with a high sensitivity of 1.5 nA l nmol−1 cm−2. The detection limit for GSH determination was 15 nmol l−1. The proposed sensor presented good repeatability, evaluated in terms of the relative standard deviation (1.5%) for n = 10. The modified electrode was applied for determination of GSH in erythrocyte samples and the results were in agreement with those obtained by a comparative method described in the literature The average recovery for these fortified samples was 100 ± 1)%. Applying a paired Student’s-t test to compare these methods, we could observe that, at the 95% confidence level, there was no statistical difference between the reference and the proposed methods.