PEDIATRICS Vol. 29 No. 3 March 1962, pp. 364-368
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CONGENITAL DEFECTS OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERENDEMIC GOITER IN A NEOLITHIC HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA

II. Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase in the Mulia Population

C. Kidson M.B.B.S., B.Sc.(Med.)1 and D. C. Gajdusek M.D.1

1 The Baker Institute for Medical Research, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, Tile National Institutes of Health, Bethesda 14, Maryland

Erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity was tested in 69 subjects from the Mulia region of Netherlands New Guinea, where a cretinoid, hypothyroid syndrome apparently affects the entire Dani-speaking population. The majority of results were in the normal range, but 11 values below this range were encountered. These findings, considered together with the results of other workers on hyperthyroid subjects, suggest that some influence of thyroid function on the activity of this enzyme may occur in vivo, although such an effect is absent in vitro. The key position of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in the hexose monophosphate shunt pathway suggests that alterations in carbohydrate oxidation via this route may be responsible for some of the metabolic changes in thyroid disease. In contrast to other areas of New Guinea, no cases of gentically controlled deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase have been found in the Mulia region, a factor of possible assistance in determining the degree of genetic isolation of this population.