Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of choline chloride (CC) and folic acid (FA) deficiency on apoptosis(APO) and necrosis(NEC) in human lymphoblast cell line. METHODS: Lymphoblasts were cultured in the special RPMI-1640 medium which was modified with 24 different combination of CC(0～21.5 μmol/L) and FA(30～240 nmol/L). Cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay (CBMN Cyt) was used to evaluate frequencies of APO and NEC after 9 d of culture. RESULTS: The frequencies of APO and NEC were gradually reduced as the concentrations of FA and CC increased. These 2 biomarkers were significantly decreased at and over 120 nmol/L FA and 6 μmol/L CC(P<0.01 or 0.05). Each CC and FA concentration had significant impact on variation of APO and NEC(P<0.01) but no interaction was found. CONCLUSION: Choline and folic acid deficiencies could induce cell death in human lymphoblast cell line, and 6 μmol/L CC and 120 nmol/L FA was the optimal combination for keeping the lowest level of APO and NEC in human lymphoblast cell line.

Key words: choline, folic acid, apoptosis, necrosis