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Health News 47 - DNA 
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• Folate Deficiency Causes DNA Breaks, Leading to Cancer and Sperm Damage

Folate Deficiency Causes DNA Breaks, Leading to Cancer and Sperm Damage

A deficiency in the B vitamin folate causes DNA strand breaks, according to a report published in the online Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).  DNA damage can lead to chromosomal aberrations and cancer. Folate and other vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause DNA double-strand breaks, which are the most serious DNA lesion caused by ionizing radiation.  Folate deficiency is more damaging than ionizing radiation in regard to its effect on DNA. 

Dr. Bruce N Ames of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute and colleagues irradiated human lymphocytes (white blood cells), and cultured other lymphocytes in low concentrations of folate for ten days. They found that folate deficiency and high doses of ionizing radiation caused DNA breaks and apoptosis. Ionizing radiation and folate deficiency also caused changes in cell cycle and gene expression. While radiation activated DNA double-strand break repair genes, folate deficiency was not found to do the same.

The researchers concluded that folate deficiency may be more detrimental than low doses of radiation and reported that insufficient dietary folate causes sperm damage. Because most individuals' exposure to radiation is relatively low, radiation may pose a smaller cancer risk than that incurred by a diet lacking in folic acid. They write, “Our results suggest that research on the biological effects of low-dose radiation, in humans, should take into account the nutritional status of the subjects, because folate (and other vitamin and mineral) deficiency could confound the effects of low-dose radiation or could even have a synergistic effect and increase the sensitivity of cells to radiation.” 

Source: Courtemanche C et al, “Folate deficiency and ionizing radiation cause DNA breaks in primary human lymphocytes: a comparison,” FASEB November 3 2003 http://www.fasebj.org/

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