A preliminary examination of the effects of genetic variants of redox enzymes on susceptibility to oedematous malnutrition and on percentage cytotoxicity in response to oxidative stress in vitro.

Variation in this small set of genes seems unlikely to have a large impact on either risk of OM or cytotoxicity after H(2)O(2) exposure. The use of larger sample sizes to test the effects of a much larger set of genetic variants will be required in order to determine whether genetic variation contributes to the risk of OM. Such studies have potential for improving our understanding of causal pathways in OM.