Hyperhomocysteinemia induced by folic acid deficiency and methionine load - Applications of a modified HPLC method

The increasing possibility that homocysteine might be involved in atherosclerosis in non-homocysteinuric subjects has required the measurement of low concentrations of this aminothiol in biological samples. The procedure described here represents an improvement of different HPLC methods. We utilized an isocratic HPLC system with fluorescence detection of plasma total homocysteine derivatized after reaction with ammonium 7-fluoro-benzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-4-sulphonate. With the help of the rapidly eluting internal standard N-acetyl-cysteine, the method ensures very good recovery (similar to 100%), reproducibility and precision (within-assay: 2.31%; day-to-day: 2.8%) in the physiological concentration range. This procedure allowed us to validate various animal models of hyperhomocysteinemia such as dietary folic acid deficiency in rat and acute methionine loads in rat and hamster. Using this method, we also confirmed that men have higher plasma total homocysteine levels than women. Due to its simplicity and reliability, our procedure is suitable for routine analysis of total homocysteine and other aminothiols (cysteine, cysteinyl-glycine and glutathione) in biological samples, as required in clinical and research laboratories.