Objectives: 

Oral administration of methionine and its degradation product, homocysteine, causes mild to moderate hyperhomocysteinemia. Kisspeptin is a recently discovered hypothalamic peptide which plays an important role in the central control of reproductive functions. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of kisspeptin-45 on methionine induced hyperhomocysteinemia in Wistar rats (100 gr).

Materials: 

Male rats were divided into four groups: The control animals were treated with saline for 30 days (s.c.). The hyperhomocysteinemia was induced by L- methionine administration (1 gr/kg, p.o.) for 30 days. The third group was treated with 20 nmol kisspeptin-45 starting from day 23 (sc) for 7 consecutive days. The last group was treated with L-methionine for 30 days and the animals received kisspeptin-45 treatment for the last 7 consecutive days. Thirty days later, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were studied in the brain tissue.

Results: 

Kisspeptin-45 treatment increased the activities of SOD (p<0.05) and GSH (p<0.01) as compared with methionine treated animals. In addition, MDA levels were elevated in methionine treated animals compared to control (p<0.01) and kisspeptin-treated groups (p<0.05).

Conclusions: 

Our results indicate that kisspeptin-45 has preventive effects on hyperhomocysteinemia induced oxidative stress.