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 improved folate status, lowered homocysteine, and was associated with increased DNA methylation markers in leukocytes and colorectal mucosa. In the folic acid group, serum folate increased from 7.4 to 13.4, erythrocyte folate increased from 282 to 443, and plasma homocysteine decreased from 12.2 to 10.7. [3 H] methyl incorporation fell in leucocyte DNA from 748 to 515 Bq/mg DNA (p = 0.05) and in colonic DNA from 602 to 451 Bq/mg DNA (p = 0.09). These findings suggest that folate-related DNA hypomethylation can be reversed by physiological folic acid intake,…
- Study & population
- Randomized placebo-controlled trial in adults with histologically confirmed colorectal adenoma recruited from colonoscopy patients in London, United Kingdom.
- Intervention
- Folic acid was given as 400 mg/day for 10 weeks.
- Key limitation
- The active intervention arm was very small (n = 15) and treatment lasted only 10 weeks, limiting precision and long-term inference.
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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…