Associations between folate and choline intake, homocysteine metabolism, and genetic polymorphism of MTHFR, BHMT and PEMT in healthy pregnant Polish women.

AIM

Physiological homocysteine (Hcy) concentrations depend on several factors, both dietary (including folate and choline intake) and biological (such as polymorphism of the genes involved in Hcy metabolism). This study aimed to thus test the associations between genes functionally linked with Hcy metabolism (MTHFR, BHMT and PEMT), folate and choline intakes, and total Hcy (tHcy) concentrations of healthy pregnant women.

METHODS

One hundred and three healthy Polish women aged 18-44 years, in the third trimester of pregnancy, were enrolled.

RESULTS

Mean blood tHcy and glutathione (GSH) concentrations were 8.08 ± 3.25 μM and 4.84 ± 1.21 μM, respectively. Concentrations of tHcy were found to be lower in the women who were taking folic acid supplements than in those who did not take these supplements (7.42 ± 1.78 μM vs 9.28 ± 4.42 μM, P < 0.05). There were no associations found between the examined parameters and BHMT (rs7356530), MTHFR (rs1801133) and PEMT (rs12325817) alone. However, blood tHcy concentrations differed in the PEMT genotype subgroups when choline and folate intakes were considered: respectively, 25% and 20% lower levels were observed in the C allele carriers who met their needs of choline or folate than in those who did not take enough these nutrients (P < 0.05 for both associations).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that choline and folate intakes might interact with MTHFR, BHMT and PEMT polymorphisms to determine tHcy and GSH blood concentrations in healthy pregnant women.