Effect of diet and 677 C -> T 5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genotypes on plasma homocyst(e)ine concentrations in Slovak adolescent population

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of diet and 677 C--> T mutation of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene on plasm a homocyst(e)ine concentrations in an adolescent population (113 males, age : 14.2+/-2.4 years; 202 females, age: 14.9+/-2.1 years) from a region chara cterized by high cardiovascular mortality. Homocyst(e)ine levels did not di ffer between males and females (9.4+/-3.5 and 8.9+/-3.1 mu mol/l, respectiv ely). The homozygosity for the 677 C-->T MTHFR mutation was found in 4.6% o f subjects. No differences in homocyst(e)ine levels were found between MTHF R genotypes. Analysis of the diet composition which was performed on a 24-h our daily recall basis and a food frequency questionnaire showed a low dail y intake of vitamin B-6 (mates: 1.13 mg/66% RDA; females: 0.92 mg/61% RDA), Daily folic acid intake was 0.21 g/105% RDA in males and 0,23g/115% RDA in females. The results of our study show that the high homocyst(e)ine levels in the adolescent population were not affected by the 677 C-->T MTHFR muta tion. We conclude that an insufficient dietary intake of vitamin B-6 and fo lic acid is responsible for this finding. This is in accord with the recomm endation that the dietary allowances for folate should be reset to the orig inally prescribed levels of 0.4 g/day which should be sufficient to control the homocysteine levels.