Is plasma homocysteine level associated with metabolic syndrome components in adolescents?

This study investigated whether serum homocysteine (Hcy) level is associated with metabolic syndrome components, including high waist circumference (WC), hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP), and insulin resistance (IR) in adolescents living in Central Anatolia, Turkey.

The data of The Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome Among Adolescents Study, a cross-sectional study carried out in two of the central and ten outlying districts of Kayseri was used. Components of metabolic syndrome were modified from the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III). A multivariate regression model was developed to examine the relationships between the homocysteine (Hcy) level and metabolic syndrome components. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HH) was defined as level of Hcy > or = 15 micromol/L.

Mean plasma Hcy level of adolescents with metabolic syndrome was found to be 11.8 +/- 5.0 micromol/L. Although the Hcy level of females (11.4 +/- 5.5 micromol/L) was lower than that of males (12.0 +/- 4.7 micromol/L), the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). In all, 40.5% of adolescents had Hcy levels between 10 and 15 micromol/L (mild HH) and 17.7% of adolescents had Hcy levels of > or = 15 micromol/L. The Hcy level was negative and weakly correlated with insulin resistance in females (r = -0.319, P = 0.058) and negative strongly correlated with SBP in males (r = - 0.385, P = 0.011). There were no associations between Hcy level and other components of metabolic syndrome.

An elevated plasma Hcy level is not considered to be related to components of metabolic syndrome. But HH may be an independent risk factor, especially for diabetic adolescents or those who have cardiovascular events as in adults.