Research paper
Effect of folic acid supplementation on genomic DNA methylation in patients with colorectal adenoma
Study answer
What this study found
Folic acid supplementation increased DNA methylation and improved folate status in patients with colorectal adenoma. Serum folate increased from 7.4 to 13.4 mg/l (change +6.0, p<0.001), erythrocyte folate from 282 to 443 mg/l (change +161, p<0.001), and plasma homocysteine decreased from 12.2 to 10.7 mmol/l (change -1.5, p=0.04). Leucocyte DNA methylation increased by 31% (95% CI 16-47%; p=0.001) and colonic mucosa DNA methylation increased by 25% (95% CI 11-39%; p=0.02); placebo showed no significant changes. These findings support the conclusion that physiological folic acid intake can…
- Study & population
- Interventional study in adults with histologically confirmed colorectal adenoma, conducted at King’s College Hospital in London, United Kingdom, with measurements taken at baseline and after 10 weeks.
- Intervention
- Folic acid was given daily for 10 weeks at 400 mg/day.
- Key limitation
- The intervention was short at 10 weeks and was conducted in a single center among adults with colorectal adenoma, which limits generalizability.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Background and aims: A low dietary folate intake can cause genomic DNA hypomethylation and may increase the risk of colorectal neoplasia. The hypothesis that folic acid supplementation increases DNA methylation in leucocytes and colorectal mucosa was…