Mechanisms of folate metabolism disorder involved in congenital heart disease

Abstract

Folate involves in one-carbon metabolism pathway, which contributes to nucleotide synthesis, amino acid transformation and methylation.Early embryo development requires a number of cell proliferation and differentiation, in which folate plays a vital role.Studies revealed folate supplement lowers the incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD), and single nucleotide polymorphisms of key enzyme in folate metabolism are closely related to CHD.Folate metabolism disorder may cause hyperhomocysteinemia, which is considered as one of the independent risk factors of CHD.Mechanism in folate metabolism disorder and CHD is unclear, and studies indicate that folate metabolism disorder may lead to CHD by various ways, such as perturbing cardiac neural crest formation and migration, inhibiting DNA synthesis and interfering cell proliferation and apoptosis.Therefore, it is important to explore the role of folate metabolism disorder in CHD, which will be helpful in preventing the disease and reducing the disease burden. Key words: CHD; Folate metabolism; SNPs; Hcy; Cardiac neural crest