ThesisAuthors: Koepke, Jay I. (2006)
Peroxisomes are ubiquitous subcellular organelles required for proper functioning of eukaryotic cells. They efficiently compartmentalize enzymes responsible for a number of essential cellular processes, including the metabolism of certain specific fatty acid chains via 13-oxidation. These and other oxidative reactions produce hydrogen peroxide, which is, in most instances, immediately processed in situ to water and oxygen. The responsible peroxidase is the heme-containing tetrameric enzyme, catalase.
What has emerged during our investigation is that there are circumstances in which the tightly regulated balance of hydrogen peroxide producing and degrading activities in peroxisomes is upset - leading to the net production and accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and downstream reactive... 
