Abstract
A 23-kDa molecular mass of antioxidant protein was purified from human liver. This protein exhibited the preventive effect against the inactivation of glutamine synthetase by a metal-catalyzed oxidation system. This antioxidant activity was supported by a thiol-reducing equivalent such as dithiothreitol in a similar manner to that of the 25-kDa thiol-specific antioxidant protein (TSA) from human red blood cells (HR). However, a thioredoxin-linked peroxidase activity of thiol-specific antioxidant protein of human liver (HLTSA) (0.91 ${\mu}mol/min/nmol$ of HLTSA) was much lower than that of thiol-specific antioxidant protein of human red blood cells (HRTSA) (16.4 ${\mu}mol/min/nmol$ of HRTSA). This HLTSA is also immnologically distinct from HRTSA Amino acid sequences of the three tryptic peptides (P1, P2, P3) of HLTSA were found to be completely homologous to segments of the known Mer5-like protein, which belongs to the known TSA family.