Letter to the editor: Is homocysteine the culprit molecule in vascular diseases or just a bystander?

摘要

to the editor: Jiang et al. (3) reported an important finding that vascular smooth cell migration was promoted by the resistin gene expression induced by ultrahigh concentrations of homo-cysteine (500 muM). The homocysteine concentrations used by Jiang et al. were markedly higher than the physiological concentrations (<100 muM); therefore, the biological significance of the results of their study should be interpreted with caution. Since supraphysiological concentrations of homocysteine are required to induce resistin expression, the role of homocysteine in vascular cell migration is debatable. To assess the effects of homocysteine at physiological levels, Wang et al. (5) developed a method in which erythro-9 (2-hydroxy-3-nonyl)-adenine hydrochloride (EHNA) and adenosine were added to homocysteine to convert homocysteine into its more toxic form S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH). This protocol has been used in many studies to study the effects of homocysteine on gene expression.