Homocysteine predicts increased NT-pro-BNP through impaired fatty acid oxidation.

BACKGROUND: The deficiency in methyl donors, folate and vitamin B12, increases homocysteine and produces myocardium hypertrophy with impaired mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and increased BNP, through hypomethylation of peroxisome-proliferator-activated-receptor gamma co-activator-1α, in rat. This may help to understand better the elusive link previously reported between hyperhomocysteinemia and BNP, in human. We investigated therefore the influence of methyl donors on heart mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and brain natriuretic peptide, in two contrasted populations.
METHODS: Biomarkers of heart disease, of one carbon metabolism and of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation were assessed in 1020 subjects, including patients undergoing coronarography and ambulatory elderly subjects from OASI cohort.
RESULTS: Folate deficit was more frequent in the coronarography population than in the elderly ambulatory volunteers and produced a higher concentration of homocysteine (19.3 ± 6.8 vs. 15.3 ± 5.6, P<0.001). Subjects with homocysteine in the upper quartile (≥ 18 μmol/L) had higher concentrations of NT-pro-BNP (or BNP in ambulatory subjects) and of short chain-, medium chain-, and long chain-acylcarnitines, compared to those in the lower quartile (≤ 12 μmol/L), in both populations (P<0.001). Homocysteine and NT-pro-BNP were positively correlated with short chain-, medium chain-, long chain-acylcarnitines and with acylcarnitine ratios indicative of decreased mitochondrial acyldehydrogenase activities (P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, homocysteine and long chain acylcarnitines were two interacting determinants of NT-pro-BNP, in addition to left ventricular ejection fraction, body mass index, creatinine and folate.
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that homocysteine predicts increased NT-pro-BNP (or BNP) through a link with impaired mitochondrial fatty oxidation, in two contrasted populations.