Elevated plasma homocysteine in cats with naturally occurring kidney disease

Abstract

Hyperhomocysteinemia is one of the complications in human patients with chronic kidney disease. The objective of this study is to investigate whether cats with naturally occurring kidney disease have hyperhomocysteinemia. Nine cats with naturally occurring kidney disease defined as serum creatinine concentration above 1.6 mg/dl and nine healthy control cats were used. Each group had five female and four male cats and all cats were greater than 9 years old. Cats were fed a dry commercial cat food with complete and balanced nutrition for two weeks. Blood samples were taken at the end of the study. Cats with kidney disease had significantly higher serum creatinine (2.1 mg/dl) and urea nitrogen (45.0 mg/dl) concentrations than the healthy control cats (serum creatinine concentration: 1.2 mg/dl; serum urea nitrogen concentration: 21.5 mg/dl). Plasma total homocysteine concentration was elevated in cats with kidney disease (15.5 μM/L) when comparing with that in the healthy control cats (12.6 μM/L). Plasma total homocysteine concentration was positively correlated with serum creatinine concentration (r = 0.403, p = 0.097). Food intake and body weight were similar between the groups during the study. The results of this study show that plasma total homocysteine concentration was elevated in the cats with naturally occurring kidney disease. Management of hyperhomocysteinemia could be beneficial to cats with kidney disease.