Plasma homocysteine is weakly correlated with plasma endothelin and von Willebrand factor but not with endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in healthy postmenopausal women.

BACKGROUND: Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent cardiovascular risk factor, possibly through the induction of endothelial dysfunction. The postmenopausal state is associated with increased plasma homocysteine. We examined whether increased homocysteine is associated with impaired endothelial function.
METHODS: Sixty-three hysterectomized but otherwise healthy postmenopausal women (54.8 +/- 3.5 years) participated in this study. Fasting total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) was measured as free plus protein-bound homocysteine. Endothelial function was assessed by measuring plasma concentrations of the endothelium-derived proteins endothelin (ET), von Willebrand factor (vWF), and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) as well as brachial artery flow-mediated, endothelium-dependent vasodilatation (FMD).
RESULTS: Plasma tHcy was 9.6 +/- 2.5 micromol/L. After adjustment for possible confounders, a 1 micromol/L increase in tHcy was associated with an increase in ET of 0.08 ng/L (P = 0.045) and an increase in vWF of 4.2% (P = 0.05). No statistically significant association was present between tHcy and PAI-1 or FMD.
CONCLUSIONS: Increased fasting homocysteine in postmenopausal women may impair some aspects of endothelial function. It is of clinical interest to study whether homocysteine lowering can improve endothelial function and thus cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women.