What is the Difference Between Liposomal Glutathione and Reduced Glutathione

The key difference between liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione is that liposomal glutathione is an active form of glutathione that exists encapsulated inside a lipid molecule in order to enhance the absorption, while reduced glutathione is an active form of glutathione that does not undergo encapsulation.

Liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione are two forms of glutathione. Glutathione is the master antioxidant in the human body. It is able to remove all free radicals from the body. Structurally, glutathione is a tripeptide made up of cysteine, glycine and glutamic acids. There are two forms of glutathione as oxidized and reduced forms. Reduced form is the active form that is able to neutralize all free radicals in the body. The problem with reduced glutathione is it gets depleted by stomach acids. Hence, its absorption is pretty low. Therefore, alternative forms such as liposomal glutathione and s-acetyl glutathione have already reached the market.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Liposomal Glutathione
3. What is Reduced Glutathione
4. Similarities – Liposomal Glutathione and Reduced Glutathione
5. Liposomal Glutathione vs Reduced Glutathione in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Liposomal Glutathione vs Reduced Glutathione

What is Liposomal Glutathione?

Liposomal glutathione is an active form of glutathione. It exists encapsulated inside a lipid molecule in order to enhance absorption. Liposome is the lipid molecule utilized for the encapsulation process. Liposome is made up of several lipid layers. The encapsulation process protects the glutathione molecule from stomach acids. It also increases the absorption by up to 80%. However, liposomal glutathione is also a type of reduced glutathione. The difference lies in the encapsulation process of liposomal glutathione.

A high-quality liposomal glutathione supplement is the best way to increase glutathione amount in the body. Usually, liposomal glutathione can be taken orally, intravenously, or through the transdermal procedure. But the most effective way is oral administration. In addition to the antioxidant function, liposomal glutathione also has several other functions, such as recycling other antioxidants like vitamin C and vitamin E, transporting amino acids, protecting mitochondrial DNA from oxidative damages, and promoting the function of natural killer cells and T cells. However, there are several problems associated with liposomal glutathiones, including short shelf life and foul taste.

What is Reduced Glutathione?

Reduced glutathione is an active form of glutathione that does not undergo the process of encapsulation. Glutathione normally exists in two forms: oxidized (GSSG) and reduced (GSH). About 90% of the total glutathione pool in the cells and tissues are reduced glutathione, while the remainder is oxidized glutathione. The ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione in cells is an important measure of cellular oxidative stress. The increased GSSG to GSH ratio is indicative of greater oxidative stress in cells and tissues.

Glutathione reductase is an enzyme encoded by the GSR gene. It is the enzyme that catalyses the reduction of glutathione disulfide (GSSG or oxidized) into glutathione sulfhydryl (GSH or reduced). This enzyme needs FAD prosthetic group and NADPH for proper function. Reduced glutathione can be orally or intravenously administrated.  It can also be inhaled through a nebulizer. Reduced glutathione carries out several functions in the body; protecting the cells by neutralizing reactive oxygen species (antioxidant), participating in thiol protection and redox regulation of cellular thiol proteins, detoxificating toxic metabolites such as methylglyoxal and formaldehyde, involving biosynthesis of leukotrienes and prostaglandins, facilitating the metabolism of xenobiotics (conjugation reactions), working as a potential neurotransmitter and participating stress management in plants.

What are the Similarities Between Liposomal Glutathione and Reduced Glutathione?

• Liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione are two forms of glutathione.
• In both substances, the glutathione is in the reduced state (GSH or sulfhydryl).
• These substances are active forms.
• Both substances are tripeptides made up of cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acids.
• They are potent antioxidants.
• Both substances can be administrated orally or intravenously.

What is the Difference Between Liposomal Glutathione and Reduced Glutathione?

Liposomal glutathione is an active form of glutathione that exists encapsulated inside a lipid molecule in order to enhance absorption, while reduced glutathione is an active form of glutathione that does not undergo the process of encapsulation. So, this is the key difference between liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione. Furthermore, the absorption of liposomal glutathione by the human body is very high, but the absorption of reduced glutathione by the human body is very low.

The below infographic lists the differences between liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Liposomal Glutathione vs Reduced Glutathione

Glutathione is a substance made from amino acids such as glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. It is a potent antioxidant involved in many processes of the human body. Liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione are two forms of glutathione. Liposomal glutathione is an encapsulated form, while reduced glutathione is an active form of glutathione that does not undergo the process of encapsulation. Thus, this is the key difference between liposomal glutathione and reduced glutathione.

Reference:

1. “Why Do We Need Liposomal Glutathione?” Researched Nutritionals, 2 Aug. 2021.
2. “Reduced Glutathione (GSH).” PromoCell, 6 May 2021.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Glutathione structure” By Claudio Pistilli – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Reduced Glutathione” By Queen4thewin at Greek Wikipedia – Own work (CC BY 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia