Effect of genetic polymorphisms involved in folate metabolism on the concentration of serum folate and plasma total homocysteine (p-tHcy) in healthy subjects after short-term folic acid supplementation: a randomized, double blind, crossover study

Table 2 Age and BMI of the study subjects and the concentrations of serum folate and p-tHcy before and after folic acid supplementation

	All	Employees	Students
Folic acid group, number	91	49	42
Age, years	53.5 ± 7.0	24.3 ± 3.2*¹
BMI		24.7 ± 3.3	23.9 ± 3.6
Sex, female/male ratio	71/24
Serum folate, nmol/L	17.2 ± 6.3	18.0 ± 4.8	16.3 ± 5.5
Serum folate, post-intervention	40.1 ± 30.7^#1	48.1 ± 38.7*²	30.6 ± 11.1*³
p-tHcy, µmol/L	8.4 ± 3.5	8.6 ± 2.3	8.2 ± 4.5
p-tHcy, post-intervention	7.8 ± 3.0^#2	8.2 ± 2.2*⁴	7.4 ± 3.8*⁵
Placebo group, number	46
Serum folate, nmol/L	16.5 ± 5.6
Serum folate, post-intervention	17.5 ± 6.3*⁶
p-tHcy, µmol/L	8.8 ± 4.3
p-tHcy, post-intervention	8.6 ± 2.9
Female/male ratio	71/24

Data are presented as mean ± SD. Log-converted values of serum folate and p-tHcy were used in the analyses
*¹ p < 0.0001, *² p < 0.0001, *³ p < 0.0001, *⁴ p = 0.009, *⁵ p = 0.007, *⁶ p = 0.01, ^#1 baseline concentrations versus after supplementation—p < 0.0001, ^#2 baseline concentration versus after treatment—p = 0.0001

ISSN: 1865-3499