Malnutrition.
A group led by Peter Kim and Robert Bandsma (Paediatrics) made a breakthrough published in Journal of Cell Biology and in the Journal of Hepatology in linking peroxisome function through the gene PEX2 and the cell’s response to starvation.
Malnourished children living in the same household who are given the same food to eat sometimes have stark differences in health, leading researchers to query why some severely malnourished children face death while others don’t.
Researchers and global health experts have come to understand that simply giving food to severely malnourished children often does not lead to recovery. This is because severely malnourished children’s bodies are affected on a deeper level that is poorly understood. To understand this further, an international team led by Peter Kim (Biochemistry) and Robert Bandsma (Paediatrics) studied this phenomenon in animal models.
Together with international collaborators, the research team found that severe malnutrition could lead to dysfunctional liver mitochondria, which are essential for energy production, and a loss of peroxisomes, which are important for normal liver metabolic function. They identified the gene PEX2, which, when turned on by malnutrition, causes the loss of peroxisome. This is the first study to demonstrate a diet-induced loss of peroxisomes in vivo. The study results could potentially lead to novel treatment strategies for severely malnourished children. The results are published in the Sept. 5 online edition of the Journal of Cell Biology and in the Journal of Hepatology.
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