Associations of plasma homocysteine level with brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, LDL atherogenicity, and inflammation profile in healthy men

AIMS: To investigate the association of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) with arterial stiffness, measured as brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), LDL atherogenicity, and inflammation profile in healthy men. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this cross-sectional study, 612 healthy men aged 31-79 years were classified into quartiles according to plasma tHcy concentration. In the total study population, tHcy concentration showed positive correlation with age (r=0.083, P=0.040), interleukin (IL)-1β (r=0.249, P<0.001), TNF-α (r=0.150, P<0.001), IL-6 (r=0.154, P<0.001), oxidized LDL (oxLDL) (r=0.161, P=<0.001), and baPWV (r=0.087, P=0.032); and negative correlation with folate (r=-0.353, P<0.001) and vitamin B(12) (r=-0.269, P<0.001). In subgroup analysis based on plasma tHcy level, tHcy was associated with baPWV in men with high levels of tHcy (≥ 13.1μmol/L, n=153; r=0.258, P=0.001), but not in those with low-tHcy (