More than 80% of the plasma glutathione is extracted during a single pass through the kidney. The peritubular component of this extraction was characterized by in situ arterial infusion of [35S]glutathione and [3H]inulin. The peak of 35S-labeled material recovered in the renal venous effluent was delayed approximately 10 S compared with the peak of [3H]inulin. As a result, the initial fractions exhibited a decreased 35S/3H ratio, indicating that 35S-labeled material is transported out of the postglomerular peritubular capillaries. Later fractions exhibited a normalized 35S/3H ratio greater than 1, consistent with the subsequent addition of a 35S-labeled metabolite to the venous circulation. An identical profile was observed when perfusion experiments were repeated using gamma-[35S]glutamyl-S-methylcysteine and [3H]inulin. Renal venous plasma samples obtained from a rat perfused with [35S]glutathione were reduced with sodium borohydride, reacted with monobromobimane, and analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography. More than 70% of the recovered 35S-labeled material was identified as cysteine and 20% was recovered as unmetabolized glutathione. Pretreatment of rats with a single injection of AT-125 resulted in 96% inactivation of renal gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase. Under these conditions, the percent of glutathione converted to cysteine (35%) was significantly less than the observed level of renal extraction (61%). Two injections of AT-125 caused a complete inhibition of cysteine formation. However, the residual level of renal extraction (41%) was still significantly greater than the filtration fraction (26%). The peritubular transport of glutathione is stimulated by prior depletion of renal glutathione with buthionine-L-sulfoximine and is competitively inhibited by simultaneous infusion of gamma-glutamylcysteine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)