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MTHFR

Meaning

MTHFR is the widely used clinical abbreviation for the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene, which provides the essential instructions for making the MTHFR enzyme, a critical component in the body’s one-carbon metabolism pathway. This vital enzyme is essential for converting the amino acid homocysteine into methionine and for converting dietary folate into its biologically active form, L-methylfolate. Common genetic polymorphisms in the MTHFR gene can impair the enzyme’s functional efficiency, directly affecting methylation and overall metabolic capacity.