Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes may cause defective DNA repair and increase the risk for breast cancer. Folate deficiency is associated with increased breast cancer risk and induces chromosome abnormalities. We hypothesized that BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutation carriers are more sensitive to the genome damaging effect of folate deficiency compared with healthy non-carrier controls and that this sensitivity is further increased in those carriers who develop breast cancer. We tested these hypotheses in lymphocytes cultured in a medium containing 12 or 120 nM folic acid (FA) for 9 days and measured proliferative capacity and chromosomal instability using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with or without breast cancer were not abnormally sensitive to FA deficiency-induced chromosome instability; however, BRCA2 mutation carriers had significantly reduced cell proliferation. FA deficiency reduced cell proliferation and increased micronucleus formation significantly, accounting for 45-59% and 70-75% of the variance in these parameters compared with 0.3-8.5% and 0.2-0.3% contributed by BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carrier status, respectively. The results of this study suggest that moderate folate deficiency has a stronger effect on chromosomal instability than BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations found in breast cancer families.
Methionine-dependence phenotype (MDP) refers to the reduced ability of cells to proliferate when methionine is restricted and/or replaced by its immediate precursor homocysteine. MDP is a characteristic of human tumors in vivo, human tumor cell lines, and normal somatic tissue in some individuals. It was hypothesized that MDP is a risk factor for developing breast cancer in BRCA (BRCA1 and BRCA2) germline mutation carriers. To test the hypothesis, human peripheral blood lymphocytes of BRCA carriers with and without breast cancer and healthy non-carrier relatives (controls) were cultured for 9 days in medium containing either 0.1 mmol/L L-methionine or 0.2 mmol/L D,L-homocysteine, with the ratio of viable cell growth in both types of medium after 9 days used to calculate the methionine-dependence index (MDI), a measure of MDP. We also tested whether MDP was associated with common polymorphisms in methionine metabolism. Viable cell growth, MDI, and polymorphism frequency in MTRR (A66G and C524T) and MTHFR (A1298C and A1793G) did not differ among the study groups; however, MDI tended to be higher in BRCA carriers with breast cancer than those without and was significantly increased in MTHFR 677T allele carriers relative to wild-type carriers (P = 0.017). The presence of MTR A2756G mutant allele and MTHFR C677T mutant allele in carriers was associated with increased breast cancer risk [odds ration, 3.2 (P = 0.16; 95% confidence interval, 0.76-13.9) and 3.9 (P = 0.09; 95% confidence interval, 0.93-16.3), respectively]. The results of this study support the hypothesis that defects in methionine metabolism may be associated with breast cancer risk in BRCA carriers. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(10):2565 -71)
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