Background: Stunting in children increases the risk of degenerative diseases in adulthood including dyslipidemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (1). This is based on the result of metabolic changes caused by chronical malnutrition and experienced in stunting children. Stunting in children is associated with metabolic disorders based on impaired fat oxidation, a trigger factor for obesity in adulthood (2). The PPARα gene is a transcriptional factor that regulates fat, carbohydrate, and amino acid metabolism whose genetic variants linked to the development of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease(3). The study assessed the effect of metabolic changes in stunting toddler on PPARα gene expression.

Methods: An analytical-observational laboratory was done using 41 blood samples, coming from 23 stunting toddlers and 18 not-stunting toddlers. In all research subjects,  anthropometric measurements and examination of PPARα gene mRNA expression were carried out. Analysis of PPARα gene mRNA expression using One Step Quantitative Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) using specific primers, as a comparison of gene expression using the GAPDH gene. The relative expression of the PPARα mRNA gene was analyzed using the LIVAK formula.

Results: The study obtained a mean of ∆CT in stunting toddlers of 5.81, whereas in stunting toddlers at 5.082. Analysis with LIVAK 2 ^ - formula (∆CT stunting -∆CT not stunting), obtained PPARα mRNA gene expression of 0.6.

Conclusion: We conclude that there is a decrease in PPARα gene expression in stunting toddlers compared with normal toddlers.