Mechanisms of thrombogenesis and accelerated atherogenesis in homocysteinaemia.

Thrombogenesis and accelerated atherogenesis occur in the homocystinurias, both those due to recessively inherited cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency and to disorders of remethylation of homocysteine to methionine. The evidence strongly implicates high levels of plasma homocysteine as the mediator. Homocysteine damages cultured human venous and arterial endothelial cells and enhances detachment from their substrate, changes not found with comparable concentrations of other amino acids tested. Homocysteine is oxidized in vitro to homocystine in an oxygen-dependent reaction producing hydrogen peroxide. Since the effects of homocysteine in cell cultures can be prevented by catalase, hydrogen-peroxide-induced injury may be the mechanism responsible. Five different laboratories have documented an association between mild homocysteinaemia and premature vascular disease. The majority of affected patients are heterozygotes for cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency whose endothelial cells may have an enhanced susceptibility to injury by homocysteine. Mild homocysteinaemia also occurs in chronic renal failure in which vascular disease is prominent. Mechanisms linking mild homocysteinaemia and possible vascular effects are not yet understood, but could involve prostaglandins and oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and possibly also free radicals.