[Evaluation of the relationships between plasma homocysteine level and selected low-grade inflammation indices according to the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in men].

UNLABELLED: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with low-grade systemic inflammation. Hyperhomocysteinemia is considered recently as a consequence of immune activation. Acute phase proteins, proinflammatory cytokines and probably homocysteine (hHcy) are involved in the pathogenesis of MS, atherosclerosis and ageing. The aim of our study was to investigate the reciprocal links between hHcy and selected negative and positive acute phase reactants as well as interleukin-18 in men over 40 years of age suffering from MS compared to healthy subjects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 160 randomly selected men aged 40 to 70 years hHcy, C-reactive protein, transferrin, alpha1-antichymotrypsin and IL-18 were evaluated and features of MS using IDF (International Diabetes Federation-2005) criteria were estimated. RESULTS: Hcy plasma levels are not correlated with age. Men suffering from MS revealed significantly higher serum hHcy levels than healthy subjects (11.52 +/- 6.87 microM/L vs 10.08 +/- 5.44 microM/L, p = 0.0074). A weak but positive (r = 0.099; p = 0.014) correlation between hHcy and the numbers of MS traits is shown. However, the plasma hHcy level is correlated only with HDL-cholesterol serum levels (r = -0.132; p = 0.035) and fasting blood glucose (r = 0.164; p = 0.009). hHcy concentration is strongly positively correlated with IL-18 (r = 0.276; p = 0.005), although not with CRP, alpha1-ACT and transferrin. CONCLUSIONS: In men over 40 years of age suffering from MS significant higher serum Hcy levels than healthy subjects are presented, but hHcy (as opposed to acute phase reactants) correlates only with IL-18 plasma concentrations.