Vitamin B12 Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin B12, including details on cyanocobalamin, benefits, supplements, deficiency, side-effects, sources. | ||||||||
|
Homocysteine, vitamin B 12 and folate in Alzheimer's and vascular dementias: the paradoxical effect of the superimposed type II diabetes mellitus condition.DomÃnguez RO, Marschoff ER, Guareschi EM, Famulari AL, Pagano MA, Serra JA, Facultad de Medicina, Hospital Sirio-Libanés-UBA, FACENE, Buenos Aires, Argentina. BACKGROUND: Increased concentration of plasmatic homocysteine (tHcy) and decreased vitamin B 12 (B12) and folate (FOL) are associated with Alzheimer's (AD) and vascular (VaD) dementias, with type II diabetes mellitus (DM), and reported as risk factors of these diseases. METHODS: The sample (n=122; males=60; mean age=73+/-7 years) comprised AD and VaD patients without DM, with a concomitant DM (AD+DM, VaD+DM), DM alone and controls (CTR), resulting in 6 groups. tHcy, B12 and FOL were determined in duplicate. RESULTS: The one-way ANOVA yielded significant differences between groups for all variables: tHcy p<10(-12); B12 p<10(-3); FOL p<10(-4). Significance for comparisons between groups was set at alpha=0.05, using the Bonferroni's statistic. The comparisons: DM vs. CTR, AD+DM vs. AD, VaD+DM vs. VaD, and DM demented vs. DM non-demented resulted significant for all variables, except for B12 in 2 comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: In demented and control subjects, tHcy and FOL exhibit extreme differences, not so marked between DM and controls. Demented patients with concomitant diabetes are closer to controls than their non-diabetic counterparts. Diabetes affects tHcy and FOL values, which are changed with opposite sign to non-demented. These results suggests a paradoxical phenomenon when diabetes is superimposed to dementias. Published 9 August 2005 in Clin Chim Acta, 359(1): 163-70.
© 2004-2008 Vitamin B12 Research Today. All Rights Reserved. |
| ||||||
