Methionine is the only endogenous precursor of homocysteine, sulfur-containing amino acid and well known as risk factor of cardiovascular disease, The aim of this study is to determinate the histological and biochemical modification in cardiac tissue, induced by methionine nutritional overload.

Twenty adult male rabbits were randomly divided into control and experimental group fed for 3 month with standard or methionine- enriched diet (500 mg of L-Met D / kg / day), respectively. Gomori's argentic impregnation and Van Gieson staining were performed to observe pathologic changes of left heart ventricle. The levels of total protein, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured, in plasma and cardiac tissue, by enzymatic methods.

The results obtained, in our conditions, shows that Met supplementation increases the plasmatic TBARS in the first month (p<0.05) of the experimentation comparing to the control group, however, in the end of the experimentation (3^rd month) both plasmatic and cardiac TBARS shows no variation compared to control group. A plasmatic increase in both AST (32.13±3,5U /L vs 21.37±2.42 U /L) and peculiarly ALT (26.65±8 55 U /L vs 50.05±12.86 U /L); PAL activity increases gradually until the 3rd month. No significant variation is observed in LDH, transaminase and PAL in cardiac tissue. Cardiac histology reveals a reduction in the connective tissue content with the appearance of chronic local inflammation and apoptosis, structural abnormalities in large coronary vessels with Hyperplasia of smooth muscular cells.

Methionine overload causes biochemical disorders and structural alterations in the heart tissue.

The author hereby declares no conflict of interest