Table 3.

Disturbances in kwashiorkor and experimental one-carbon nutrient deficient diets^* (1CNDDs).

Feature	1CNDDs	Kwashiorkor
Organ changes
Liver steatosis	↑24	↑88
Pancreatic atrophy	↑89	↑88
Exocrine pancreas fxn.	↓90	↓91
Intestinal thickness	↓48, 42	↓93
Intestinal permeability	↑94	↑95
Intestinal inflammation	↑96	↑97
Skin disturbances	↑98, 99	↑100
Cellular immune fxn.	↓101	↓102
Edema†	↑103†	↑14
Molecular changes
Transmethylation	↓104	↓57
DNA methylation	↓105	↓80
Plasma carnitine	↓106	↓107
Plasma cysteine	↓123	↓57
Plasma glutathione	↓108	↓71
Sulfated GAGs‡	↓109	↓110
Plasma albumin	↓111	↓112
Hepatic PPARα§	↓113	↓?114
Plasma triglycerides¶	↓115	↓116
Fatty acid oxidation	↓117	↓118
Lipid peroxidation	↑119	↑120
‘Oxidative stress’	↑24	↑82, 83
Metalloproteinase-2	↑121	↑199
Plasma TNF-α	↑122	↑123

^⁎Most experimental diets referenced here are deficient in methionine and choline.

^†Nutritional edema in rats is prevented completely by supplementation with choline, and prevented partially with cobalamin.

^‡Glycosaminoglycans.

^§Hepatic PPARα signaling in kwashiorkor has not been directly characterized. Hepatic peroxisomes are reduced in kwashiorkor, suggesting that PPARα signaling is suppressed.

^¶In kwashiorkor plasma triglycerides are lower at diagnosis, then rise during treatment.