title: [The impairment of homocysteine on neurons and the related mechanisms].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To observe the impairment of homocysteine (Hcy) on neurons in vitro and the related mechanisms.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined the consequences of treatment of cultured rat cortical and hippocampal neurons with Hcy and detected the neurons' apoptosis, calcium influx, DNA damage and oxidative injury.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Primary cortical and hippocampal neurons were treated with Hcy (250 micromol/L) for 4 h resulted in apoptosis time-dependently. S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) could significantly, but MK-801, an NMDA receptor inhibitor, couldn't repress the Hcy induced neuron apoptosis. Hcy could induce neuron calcium overload through activating the NMDA receptors. The DNA of neurons was damaged by Hcy because the methylation reactions were inhibited. Hcy treatment also induced MDA level significantly increased, but did not affect the neurons' T-AOC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that Hcy compromises neuronal homeostasis by multiple, divergent routes, including DNA damage, neuron exitotoxicity, and oxidative injury. Hcy mediated neuron apoptosis was mainly due to DNA damage.
authors.affiliation: Institution of Health and Environmental Medicine, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Tianjin 300050, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hohg
authors.forename: Wei-Qiang
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shu-Tian
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dong-Lan
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yi-Yong
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D004249:DNA Damage; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D006710:Homocysteine; D002118:Calcium