Mitochondrial DNA, aging and sudden infant death syndrome.

|Sir, l ' Sudden infant death syndrome i s the most common cause of death ! in infants frorn the first week to the first year of age. While in a few cases distinct and defined causes have been identified — for , example, defects in mitochondrial ß-oxidation (medium chain acylCoA dehydrogenase) — in most cases the pathomechanisms triggering the fatal event remain totally unknown. Since energy yielding metabolism is a possible candidate, we would like to emphasize ; that alterations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can contribute to the phenomenon of sudden infant death syndrome. This ässumption is based on theoretical groünds, äs well äs on preliminary experimental results from an ongoing study.