BACKGROUND B-vitamins (folate, B(12)) are important micronutrients for brain function and essential cofactors for homocysteine (HCY) metabolism. Increased HCY has been related to neurological and psychiatric disorders. We studied the role of the B-vitamins in HCY metabolism in the brain. METHODS We studied blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 72 patients who underwent lumbar punct...

Dietary folate supplementation can dramatically reduce the severity and incidence of several common birth defects and adult diseases that are associated with anomalies in homocysteine and folate metabolism. The common polymorphisms that adversely affect these metabolic pathways do not fully account for the particular birth defects and adult diseases that occur in at-risk individuals. To test in...

The authors' objective in this study was to estimate the changes in serum folate and homocysteine concentration that resulted from 6 weeks of supplementation with folic acid. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response trial with a parallel-group design was conducted. A total of 133 participants aged 60-90 years (70% female, 19% nonwhite) were assigned to receive 0, 100, 400, ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between the risk of neural tube defects (NTD) and maternal serum vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine in a high-risk area of China. DESIGN A case-control study was carried out in Luliang mountain area of Shanxi Province. SUBJECTS/SETTING A total of eighty-four NTD pregnancies and 110 matched controls were included in the study; their serum vitamin B12 an...

Folic acid is one of the few substances known to be present in higher concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) than in other body fluids. CSF folate levels are approximately three times higher than serum levels (Herbert & Zalusky, 1961) and the relationship between serum and CSF folate remains constant in the presence of folate deficiency (Reynolds, Gallacher, Mattson, Bowers & Johnson, 1...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate whether 6 candidate serum miRNAs and their interactions with serum folate level were associated with the risk for pancreatic cancer (PC). METHOD A hospital-based case-control study including 74 incident PC cases and 74 controls was conducted. Serum folate and miRNAs were determined by radioimmunoassay and real-time quantitative polymerase ch...

BACKGROUND In the absence of clinical folate deficiency, periconceptional supplementation with folic acid reduces a woman's risk of having an infant with a neural-tube defect. Since antiserum to folate receptors induces embryo resorption and malformations in rats, we hypothesized that autoantibodies against folate receptors in women may be associated with pregnancy complicated by a neural-tube ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the potential association between serum folate levels and colorectal adenoma (CRA) occurrence and recurrence. METHODS This prospective study measured baseline serum folate levels in outpatients who were screened for CRA using colonoscopy. Participants were then randomly selected to produce one group with CRA and one without CRA. These two subgroups underwent further f...

BACKGROUND Folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies have been known to cause megaloblastic anaemia. Since the deficiencies of these two vitamins are very common in Pakistani population, it would be imperative to investigate their role in causing megaloblastic anaemia. The objective of this study was to find out the contribution of folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies in causing megaloblastic anaemia ...

In a recent study of older participants (age >/=60 years) in the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we showed that a combination of high serum folate and low vitamin B(12) status was associated with higher prevalence of cognitive impairment and anemia than other combinations of vitamin B(12) and folate status. In the present study, we sought to determine the jo...