This gene encodes a mitochondrial alanine transaminase, a pyridoxal enzyme that catalyzes the reversible transamination between alanine and 2-oxoglutarate to generate pyruvate and glutamate. Alanine transaminases play roles in gluconeogenesis and amino acid metabolism in many tissues including skeletal muscle, kidney, and liver. Activating transcription factor 4 upregulates this gene under metabolic stress conditions in hepatocyte cell lines. A loss of function mutation in this gene has been associated with developmental encephalopathy. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Apr 2015]
Forensic Context
A study in mice demonstrated that the mRNA for glutamic pyruvic transaminase-2 (Gpt2) was relatively upregulated in adult animals compared to young ones following a severe burn injury, indicating its involvement in age-specific metabolic responses to trauma [Song et al. DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-26040-1]. In human newborns, the protein biomarker glutamic pyruvic transaminase-2 (GPT2) is noted in the literature as having elevations that could be used to diagnose hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a condition resulting from perinatal asphyxia [Lai et al. DOI:10.1016/j.pedneo.2024.05.002].