BACKGROUND An understanding of whether homocysteine is a cause or a marker of increased blood pressure is relevant because blood homocysteine can be effectively lowered by safe and inexpensive interventions (e.g., vitamin B-6, B-9, and B-12 supplementation). OBJECTIVE The aim was to assess the causal influence of homocysteine on systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively...

High blood homocysteine levels may risk gastric cancer. However, observational studies have been plagued by chance, bias, confounding, or reverse causality. In this study, we assessed the relationship between blood homocysteine levels and gastric cancer by using a Mendelian randomization method, which is independent of nongenetic confounding.We took 2 steps to perform Mendelian randomization an...

Total homocysteine is defined as the sum of all homocysteine species in plasma/serum, including free and protein-bound forms. In the present review, we compare and evaluate several techniques for the determination of total homocysteine. Because these assays include the conversion of all forms into a single species by reduction, the redistribution between free and protein-bound homocysteine thro...

The significance of any association between cardiovascular disease and circulating homocysteine concentrations is attracting considerable attention. The normal activities of the transsulfuration and remethylation pathways maintain intracellular homocysteine levels within a narrow range, and the controlled release of homocysteine into blood results in blood measurements that provide an accurate ...

Previous studies suggest that elevated blood homocysteine levels and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism are risk factors for schizophrenia. However, the effects of gender and MTHFR C677T genotypes on blood homocysteine levels in schizophrenia have not been consistent. We first investigated whether plasma total homocysteine levels were higher in patients with schi...

Lead and homocysteine are both associated with cardiovascular disease and cognitive dysfunction. We evaluated the relations among blood lead, tibia lead, and homocysteine levels by cross-sectional analysis of data among subjects in the Baltimore Memory Study, a longitudinal study of 1,140 randomly selected residents in Baltimore, Maryland, who were 50-70 years of age. Tibia lead was measured by...

OBJECTIVE We studied the effect of non-occupational exposure to lead and cadmium on homocysteine level in plasma. Homocysteine is a marker for plasma folate folic acid metabolism in urban populations. PATIENTS AND METHODS 159 individuals from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai with no history of close exposure to heavy metals and no history of metabolic diseases were enrolled to partic...

Plasma homocysteine levels were determined in patients who participated in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of folate supplementation (1 mg/day) during methotrexate therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Plasma and red blood cell folate levels before methotrexate therapy were significantly negatively correlated with homocysteine levels. Homocysteine levels were not significantly c...