The reduction of glutathione by the Warburg-Christian system

HoPKINs [1921] suggested that the physiological significance of glutathione might lie in its ability to function as transporter of hydrogen from oxidisable molecules in the cell to molecular oxygen. His observation that certain animal tissues were able to reduce the oxidised form of the peptide, and that the reduced form was autoxidisable, lent support to this view. Furthermore he recognised that glutathione apparently always occurs in the reduced form in animal tissues.