Intestinal monoamine oxidase activity in premature and full-term infants with surgical pathology

Advances in pediatric surgery, intensive care, and anesthesiology have significantly improved the outcomes of surgical treatment of full-term and premature infants with intestinal malformations and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The main challenges in treating children of this complex group today lie in improving diagnostics, choosing treatment tactics, and ensuring the postoperative period. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes oxidative deamination of biogenic and xenobiotic monoamines, including those in intestinal wall cells and tissues. It can be a prognostic and diagnostic marker of the effectiveness and rate of intestinal recovery in the postoperative period, and also serve as a point of application for pharmacological correction. The aim of the study is to determine the activity of intestinal MAO in children of the first year of life with surgical pathology. Material and methods. The study included 24 patients with colon and small intestine pathologies, aged from 1 day to 3 months, who were treated at the Chelyabinsk Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital from October 2022 to May 2024. MAO-A and MAO-B activity was studied by spectrophotometry in intestinal homogenates obtained at the proximal resection margin. Results and discussion. Intestinal samples obtained from patients with diseases accompanied by pronounced inflammatory changes (NEC stage IIIA–IIIB, enterostomy closure after NEC III, intestinal neuronal dysplasia (IND), Hirschsprung’s disease) showed a significant decrease in the activity of the MAO-A isoform. A decrease in MAO-B activity was demonstrated in intestinal wall samples obtained from children with confirmed diagnoses of Hirschsprung’s disease and intestinal neuronal dysplasia, as well as in premature infants with surgical stages of NEC. The highest activity of both enzyme isoforms was found in sigmoid colon samples without pathological changes in patients with anal and rectum atresia.

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