Acute
homocysteinemia mice were prepared by forcibly
oral administration of
homocysteine (4 mM, 2 mL). The amounts of plasma
homocysteine were estimated by a fluorescence method with HPLC.
Folic acid (0.6 mM, 2 mL), DMSP, or
betaine (20 mM, 2 mL each) was intraperitoneally administrated into the mice suffered from the acute
homocysteinemia on the 20th, 40th or 60th min after the oral supplementation of
homocysteine, then amounts of plasma
homocysteine were determined by the HPLC method 40 min after each addition, respectively. The results indicated that the intraperitoneal addition of
folic acid or DMSP in this order of the 40th, 60th and 20th min after the oral supplementation of
homocysteine significantly reduce the quantities of plasma
homocysteine, but
betaine exerted the fairly lesser effects. The amounts of
homocysteine without any additive linearly and rapidly appeared to increase up to 60 min, at which those were about 8-12 fold the normal levels of
homocysteine, and thereafter decreased in these experiments. Accordingly,
folic acid which is known to effectively improve
homocysteinemia was proven to be completely replaced by DMSP under the experimental conditions.