Pyroglutamate (or Pyroglutamic acid) is an intermediate in the glutathione metabolism and a marker of glutathione deficiency.
Pyroglutamate is a step in the production/recycling of glutathione. Glutathione is one of the most potent anti-oxidants in the human body. It is especially important in getting rid of toxins, including the harmful metabolites of estrogen detoxification 4-OH-E1 and 4-OH-E2.
In healthy individuals, a very modest amount of Pyroglutamate is spilled in the urine.
Though it does not directly look at glutathione status, it measures the activity of the rate limiting enzymatic process in the production of glutathione. Thus, it is assessing the process of antioxidant production, and when upregulated informs us of increased stress on the system.
Glutathione, itself, is the major antioxidant produced in abundance in the liver. It is composed of three amino acids: cysteine, glycine, and glutamate. In periods of nutritional deficiency, stress, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), toxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular proliferation, Phase 2 detoxification, etc. glutathione stores are depleted, and the production status is upregulated. Prolonged glutathione depletion leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and is directly supported with glutathione administration.
If there is little glutathione available to be recycled, pyroglutamate will be low. Low values may indicate glutathione deficiency due to oxidative stress or chemical exposure. Supplementation with reduced glutathione, N-acetyl L-cysteine, lipoic acid, and vitamin C (buffered) can raise glutathione levels. Selenium is essential to the antioxidant activity of glutathione; usually, adequate selenium can be obtained from a quality multivitamin.
Additional investigations:
- Functional Liver Detoxification Profile
- Total Antioxidant Status
Treatment considerations:
- Identify & correct toxicity
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
If the body cannot convert pyroglutamate forward, it will show up elevated in the urine. Pyroglutamate elevation indicates the body is using up glutathione to keep from losing amino acids. Supplementation with various amino acids, especially methionine and glycine, can help rebuild total body glutathione.
Possible causes:
- Impaired recycling to glutathione due to cofactor insufficiencies (Mg, cysteine, glycine, glutamine)
- Consistent with impaired GSH
- Elevated values may be due to supplementation with glutathione or N-acetyl cysteine.
- Elevated pyroglutamic acid may also result from a genetic disorder, metabolic effects of certain antibiotics, or intake of certain infant formulas.
Additional investigations:
- Vitamins & Minerals Analysis
- Urinary Amino Acids
Treatment considerations:
- Supplement Mg, glycine, glutamine, N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get Started
Monthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
2-Hydroxybutyric, 2-Hydroxybutyric (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Hydroxyhippuric, 2-Hydroxyhippuric (Females Under Age 13), 2-Hydroxyhippuric (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Hydroxyisocaproic, 2-Hydroxyisocaproic (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Hydroxyisovaleric, 2-Hydroxyisovaleric (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Hydroxyphenylacetic, 2-Hydroxyphenylacetic (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Oxo-4-methiolbutyric, 2-Oxo-4-methiolbutyric (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Oxoglutaric, 2-Oxoglutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Oxoisocaproic, 2-Oxoisocaproic (Males Age 13 and Over), 2-Oxoisovaleric, 2-Oxoisovaleric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaric (HMG), 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Hydroxybutyric, 3-Hydroxybutyric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Hydroxyglutaric, 3-Hydroxyglutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Indoleacetic, 3-Indoleacetic (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Methyl-2-oxovaleric, 3-Methyl-2-oxovaleric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Methylglutaconic, 3-Methylglutaconic (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Methylglutaric, 3-Methylglutaric (Females Under Age 13), 3-Methylglutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Oxoglutaric, 3-Oxoglutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), 3-Oxoglutaric (Males Under Age 13), 4-Cresol, 4-Cresol (Males Age 13 and Over), 4-Hydroxybenzoic, 4-Hydroxybenzoic (Males Age 13 and Over), 4-Hydroxybutyric, 4-Hydroxybutyric (Females Under Age 13), 4-Hydroxybutyric (Males Age 13 and Over), 4-Hydroxyhippuric, 4-Hydroxyhippuric (Males Age 13 and Over), 4-Hydroxyphenylacetic, 4-Hydroxyphenylacetic (Females Under Age 13), 4-Hydroxyphenylacetic (Males Age 13 and Over), 4-Hydroxyphenyllactic, 4-Hydroxyphenyllactic (Males Age 13 and Over), 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic (5-HIAA), 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic (5-HIAA) (Males Age 13 and Over), 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furoic, 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furoic (Males Age 13 and Over), 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furoic (Males Under Age 13), Acetoacetic, Acetoacetic (Males Age 13 and Over), Aconitic, Aconitic (Males Age 13 and Over), Adipic, Adipic (Males Age 13 and Over), Arabinose, Arabinose (Females Under Age 13), Arabinose (Males Age 13 and Over), Arabinose (Males Under Age 13), Ascorbic, Ascorbic (Males Age 13 and Over), Ascorbic (Males Under Age 13), Carboxycitric, Carboxycitric (Males Age 13 and Over), Citramalic, Citramalic (Males Age 13 and Over), Citric, Citric (Males Age 13 and Over), DHPPA (Beneficial Bacteria), DHPPA (Beneficial Bacteria) (Males Age 13 and Over), Dihydroxyphenylacetic (DOPAC), Dihydroxyphenylacetic (DOPAC) (Females Under Age 13), Dihydroxyphenylacetic (DOPAC) (Males Age 13 and Over), Dihydroxyphenylacetic (DOPAC) (Males Under Age 13), Ethylmalonic, Ethylmalonic (Males Age 13 and Over), Fumaric, Fumaric (Males Age 13 and Over), Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic, Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic (Males Age 13 and Over), Furancarbonylglycine, Furancarbonylglycine (Females Under Age 13), Furancarbonylglycine (Males Age 13 and Over), Furancarbonylglycine (Males Under Age 13), Glutaric, Glutaric (Females Under Age 13), Glutaric (Males Age 13 and Over), Glyceric, Glyceric (Males Age 13 and Over), Glycolic, Glycolic (Males Age 13 and Over), Hippuric, Hippuric (Females Under Age 13), Hippuric (Males Age 13 and Over), Homogentisic, Homogentisic (Males Age 13 and Over), Homovanillic (HVA), Homovanillic (HVA) (Males Age 13 and Over), HPHPA, HPHPA (Males Age 13 and Over), HVA / VMA Ratio, HVA / VMA Ratio (Males Age 13 and Over), HVA/ DOPAC Ratio, HVA/ DOPAC Ratio (Males Age 13 and Over), Kynurenic, Kynurenic (Males Age 13 and Over), Lactic, Lactic (Males Age 13 and Over), Lactic (Males Under Age 13), Malic, Malic (Males Age 13 and Over), Malic (Males Under Age 13), Malonic, Malonic (Males Age 13 and Over), Mandelic, Mandelic (Males Age 13 and Over), Methylcitric, Methylcitric (Males Age 13 and Over), Methylmalonic, Methylmalonic (Males Age 13 and Over), Methylsuccinic, Methylsuccinic (Males Age 13 and Over), N-Acetylaspartic, N-Acetylaspartic (Males Age 13 and Over), N-Acetylcysteine (NAC), N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) (Males Age 13 and Over), Orotic, Orotic (Females Under Age 13), Orotic (Males Age 13 and Over), Oxalic, Oxalic (Females Under Age 13), Oxalic (Males Age 13 and Over), Pantothenic (B5), Pantothenic (B5) (Males Age 13 and Over), Phenyllactic, Phenyllactic (Males Age 13 and Over), Phenylpyruvic, Phenylpyruvic (Males Age 13 and Over), Phosphoric, Phosphoric (Males Age 13 and Over), Pyridoxic (B6), Pyridoxic (B6) (Males Age 13 and Over), Pyroglutamic, Pyroglutamic (Males Age 13 and Over), Pyruvic, Pyruvic (Females Under Age 13), Pyruvic (Males Age 13 and Over), Quinolinic, Quinolinic (Males Age 13 and Over), Quinolinic / 5-HIAA Ratio, Sebacic, Sebacic (Males Age 13 and Over), Suberic, Suberic (Males Age 13 and Over), Succinic, Succinic (Females Under Age 13), Succinic (Males Age 13 and Over), Tartaric, Tartaric (Males Age 13 and Over), Thymine, Thymine (Males Age 13 and Over), Tricarballylic, Tricarballylic (Females Under Age 13), Tricarballylic (Males Age 13 and Over), Tricarballylic (Males Under Age 13), Uracil, Uracil (Males Age 13 and Over), Vanillylmandelic (VMA), Vanillylmandelic (VMA) (Males Age 13 and Over)
