Dietary cysteine is used more efficiently by children with severe acute malnutrition with edema compared with those without edema.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Children with edematous severe acute malnutrition (SAM) produce less cysteine than do their nonedematous counterparts. They also have marked glutathione (GSH) depletion, hair loss, skin erosion, gut mucosal atrophy, and depletion of mucins. Because GSH, skin, hair, mucosal, and mucin proteins are rich in cysteine, we hypothesized that splanchnic extraction and the efficiency of cysteine utilization would be greater in edematous than in nonedematous SAM.

Objective

We aimed to measure cysteine kinetics in childhood edematous and nonedematous SAM.

Design

Cysteine flux, oxidation, balance, and splanchnic uptake (SPU) were measured in 2 groups of children with edematous (n = 9) and nonedematous (n = 10) SAM at 4.4 ± 1.1 d after admission (stage 1) and at 20.5 ±

SUBMITTER: Badaloo A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3238464 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature