IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL LOCALIZATION OF GLUTATHIONE-S-TRANSFERASE-PI IN RAINBOW-TROUT OLFACTORY RECEPTOR NEURONS

In the fish olfactory system, glutathione S-transferases (GST) which d etoxify electrophilic substances and participate in reactions of lipop hilic compounds, may be active in the biotransformation of odorants an d xenobiotics. In this study GST activity in the rainbow trout olfacto ry mucosa was high (477.6 +/- 218 nmol/min per mg protein). The GST pi class was demonstrated by Western immunoblot analysis and localized b y immunofluorescence to the dendritic and perinuclear regions of olfac tory receptor neurons; areas previously shown to contain elevated glut athione. The presence of GST and glutathione in fish olfactory recepto r neurons suggests that these cells utilize the glutathione pathway.