Helicobacter pylori infection does not affect the serum level of homocysteine.

Abstract

TO THE EDITOR: Hyperhomocysteinemia has been reported to cause vascular endothelial damage with resulting coronary arteriosclerosis (1). Malabsorption of vitamins caused by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection may affect the serum homocysteine concentration (2), and result in arteriosclerosis (3, 4). However, the findings of previous studies concerning the effect of H. pylori infection on homocysteine concentration are still conflicting (5, 6, 7, 8). Recently, we have found that H. pylori-seropositive elderly Japanese individuals have a significantly lower serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration than H. pylori-seronegative ones (9), suggesting that long-term infection with H. pylori may have an effect on the development of arteriosclerosis and the onset of cardiovascular disease. However, there was no difference in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level between H. pylori-positive and negative individuals under the age of 60 yr. Therefore, we investigated the serum homocysteine concentration in H. pylori-positive and negative individuals to clarify whether H. pylori infection affects homocysteine metabolism as a cause of arteriosclerosis in middle-aged individuals. The subjects were 45 healthy volunteers with H. pylori infection (mean age 39.8 yr, range 29–53 yr, 24 men), and 45 age-matched controls without infection (mean age 39.4 yr, range 31–53 yr, 19 men). The subjects' H. pylori infection status had been determined previously by both 13C-urea breath test and serology. None of the subjects had undergone eradication therapy for H. pylori infection. After obtaining the subjects' written informed consent, serum samples were collected, and total homocysteine concentrations were measured by the previously established method using high-performance liquid chromatography. Statistical analysis was performed by the Mann-Whitney U test using the SPSS statistical package (Version 6.1J for Macintosh, SPSS, Chicago, IL). Differences at p < 0.05 were considered to be significant.