Impaired cross-talk between the thioredoxin and glutathione systems is related to ASK-1 mediated apoptosis in neuronal cells exposed to mercury.

Mercury (Hg) compounds target both cysteine (Cys) and selenocysteine (Sec) residues in peptides and proteins. Thus, the components of the two major cellular antioxidant systems - glutathione (GSH) and thioredoxin (Trx) systems - are likely targets for mercurials. Hg exposure results in GSH depletion and Trx and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) are prime targets for mercury. These systems have a wide-range of common functions and interaction between their components has been reported. However, toxic effects over both systems are normally treated as isolated events. To study how the interaction between the glutathione and thioredoxin systems is affected by Hg, human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells were exposed to 1 and 5μM of inorganic mercury (Hg