Pyruvate Kinase - Deficiency

Deficiency

Genetic defects of this enzyme cause the disease known as pyruvate kinase deficiency. In this condition, a lack of pyruvate kinase slows down the process of glycolysis. This effect is especially devastating in cells that lack mitochondria, because these cells must use anaerobic glycolysis as their sole source of energy because the TCA cycle is not available.

One example is red blood cells, which in a state of pyruvate kinase deficiency rapidly become deficient in ATP and can undergo hemolysis. Therefore, pyruvate kinase deficiency can cause hemolytic anemia.

Read more about this topic:  Pyruvate Kinase

Famous quotes containing the word deficiency:

    Shakespeare’s fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    It is easier to discover a deficiency in individuals, in states, and in Providence, than to see their real import and value.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    Free verse leaves out the meter and makes up
    For the deficiency by church intoning.
    Free verse, so called, is really cherished prose....
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)