The anti-folate effect of methionine on bone marrow of normal and vitamin B12 deficient rats.

The effects of dietary vitamin B12 and methionine deficiency, and the in vitro addition of methionine, homocysteine, or folic acid on the methylation of dUMP to dTMP were studied in rat bone marrow culture. Vitamin B12 or methionine deficiency had no effect on the methylation reaction or on bone marrow folate levels although the vitamin B12 content in bone marrow was reduced in vitamin B12 deficiency. In vitro addition of vitamin B12 or folic acid also had no effect on the methylation of dUMP. In vitro addition of methionine reduced the methylation of dUMP and increased the proportion of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate at the expense of other folate coenzymes. The reason for this 'anti-folate' effect of methionine, which is the opposite to that found in liver, was not clear. The presence of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase were confirmed in rat bone marrow and they were inhibited by S-adenosylmethionine and methionine, respectively, in a similar fashion to that found with the liver enzymes. Homocysteine had no effect on the proportions of the various folate coenzymes in bone marrow but did inhibit the incorporation of deoxyuridine and deoxythymidine into DNA. It appeared that homocysteine exerted at a non-folate dependent step beyond the formation of dTMP.