BACKGROUND Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Folate helps to maintain DNA integrity and to regulate gene expression. Serum folate levels may affect the risk of several cancers, including lung cancer. In this study we evaluated the association between serum folate concentration and variations in genes involved in folate metabolism with lung cancer incidence in ...

The intestinal absorption of folate occurs at the monoglutamyl level, and an important measure of food folate bioavailability is how much folate from the food reaches the intestinal sites in forms that can readily be absorbed. In the absence of protecting agents, e.g., vitamin C and reduced thiols, many labile folates may be lost during cooking and during residence in the acid-peptic milieu of ...

We assessed folate nutritional status from birth to 12 months in fifty-one infants who were fed human milk (HM; n 20), casein-based formula (CBF; n 12) or soya-based formula (SBF; n 19). Folate contents in ninety-five HM samples obtained from twenty mothers for the first 6-month period and twelve CBF and nineteen SBF samples were measured by bioassay after trienzyme extraction. Folate intake wa...

This study assessed folate intakes, folate concentrations in plasma and erythrocytes, plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) concentration, and urinary excretion of folate metabolites in Korean women with childbearing potential. A total of 23 women voluntarily participated in this study. Precise dietary intakes for 3 consecutive days were determined by weighing all foods consumed and folate intake wa...

SIR,-Your interesting leading article on cardiac failure and folate deficiency (24 January, p. 188) commented on the possible causes of this association, and factors like impaired dietary intake and gastrointestinal malabsorption were mentioned. A contributory cause could well be excessive folate loss in the urine. Urinary folate excretion has been poorly studied, but we recently reported an un...

As with most other vitamins, the assessment of biological stores and intake is based on the concentration in body fluids. Studies of folate status have traditionally used serum/plasma or red blood cell folate. Both assays are widely available in laboratories. Red cell folate, favoured by many clinicians, is the more labour intensive test and therefore more costly than serum folate. Turnaround t...

Clinical reports have suggested that low dietary folate increases risk for colorectal cancer. Animal studies for investigation of folate and tumorigenesis have used carcinogen induction or mice with germ-line mutations. We have developed a new spontaneous tumor model in which mice, with or without a null allele in a key folate-metabolizing enzyme, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (Mthfr), de...

The growth requirements and transport characteristics of folate compounds in a methotrexate-resistant L1210/R81 cell line were compared with parental cells. Concentrations for half-maximal growth of the resistant cells with folate (350 nM) and 5-formyltetrahydrofolate (20 nM) were found to be higher by 2.7-fold and 20-fold, respectively, relative to the parent, suggesting that changes had occur...

Folate is a B vitamin, deficiency of which appears to increase the risk of developing several malignancies including colorectal cancer. In contrast to the cancer-promoting effect of folate deficiency in normal tissues, several lines of evidence indicate that folate depletion suppresses the progression of existing neoplasms and enhance the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Folate medi...

Folate is an essential co-factor in the remethylation of homocysteine to methionine, thereby ensuring the supply of S-adenosylmethionine, the methyl group donor for most biological methylations, including that of DNA. Aberrant patterns and dysregulation of DNA methylation are consistent events in carcinogenesis and hence, DNA methylation is considered to be mechanistically related to the develo...