Homocysteine plasma levels as a marker of clinical severity in septic patients.

Objective: Homocysteine and sepsis are both associated with inflammation and endothelial activation. Therefore this study was aimed to evaluate if the plasma homocystein level is related with the septic patient clinical severity.

Methods: Severe sepsis or septic shock patients, with less than 48 hours from organ dysfunction start, were admitted to this prospective observational study.

Relationship between polymorphisms in genes involved in homocysteine metabolism and maternal risk for Down syndrome in Brazil.

Associations between specific alleles of genes encoding enzymes in the methionine/homocysteine pathway and plasma homocysteine levels have been examined in different populations. In the present study, we determined polymorphisms of MTHFR A222V (677C > T), MTHFR E429A (1298A > C), MTRR I22M (66A > G), MTR D919G (2756A > G), and CBS 844ins68 and total plasma homocysteine levels (tHcy) among 154 mothers of children with Down syndrome (DS) and 158 control mothers from Brazil. Homocysteine levels were higher among DS mothers compared to control groups (10.