Growth promotion by homocysteine thiolactone and its alpha-alkylated derivative - A role for excess growth in homocystinurias?

It is controversial whether homocysteic acid or other homocysteine derivatives show growth promoting effects. In a clonogenic assay we could show that homocysteine thiolactone and its alpha alkylated derivative increased colony formation significantly. Our work favorizes previous observations showing growth promoting activity of homocysteine derivatives and encourages further studies on that subject with implications for growth in physioogy and under pathological conditions.