Insulin Resistance Is Not
Related to Plasma Homocysteine Concentration in Healthy
Premenopausal Women
F. TANRIKULU-KILIÇ, S. BEKPINAR, Y. ÜNLÜÇERÇI, Y.
ORHAN1
Department of Biochemistry, and 1Department of
Endocrinology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine,
Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
Received date December 21, 2004
Accepted date May 16, 2005
On-line available August 5, 2005
Summary
This study was performed to test whether plasma homocysteine
concentrations are related to insulin resistance in healthy
premenopausal women. For this purpose, the relationship between
insulin resistance (as assessed by HOMA index) and fasting
plasma homocysteine level was determined in 83 healthy
volunteers. The results indicated that homocysteine
concentrations did not vary as a function of HOMA index (r =
-0.147). Plasma homocysteine concentrations also did not vary as
a function of other parameters of insulin resistance such as
HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, which they correlated
inversely with body mass index (BMI). Furthermore, when
individuals were classified according to quartiles of insulin
resistance (HOMA index), plasma homocysteine concentrations from
the lowest to the highest quartiles were not significantly
different. On the other hand, the HOMA index correlated
significantly with triglyceride concentrations (r = 0.377, p<
0.001), HDL-cholesterol (r = -0.310, p< 0.01) and BMI (r =
0.468, p< 0.001). These results suggest that plasma homocysteine
concentrations are not related to insulin resistance and/or
metabolic abnormalities associated with it in premenopausal
women.
Key words
Homocysteine • Insulin resistance • Metabolic syndrome
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