Abstract
Problem statement: Vitamin B deficiency remains widespread in many countries including Jordan, mainly due to inadequate dietary intake of vitamin B and absorption problems. Approach: Few researches on vitamin B12 status in healthy subjects are carried out. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of vitamin B12 in healthy Jordanian subjects living in the city of Ma'an. Randomized samples involving 511 healthy participants aged between 15-80 years whom referred for routine laboratory check up at the medical center of Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (AHU) in Jordan, were subjected to a health screening and then they provided a blood sample. Serum vitamin B12 concentration was determined using the fully automated Abbott AxSYM B12 assay, the accuracy and precision of this method was evaluated using certified reference materials. Results: Prevalence of low vitamin for 15-24-year-old, 25-34-year-old and over 34-year-old age groups among both males 2.7, 2.9 and 5.1% and females 5.1, 3.9 and 5.8% respectively were not significantly lower than those were not B12 deficient (P = 0.57 and P = 0.52, respectively). The highest prevalence was considered in both male and female over 34-year-old age group which increased by ageing. Conclusion/Recommendations: This study revealed that the prevalence of low vitamin B12 levels are considerably lower than other communities. One possible explanation of these observations is that Jordanians eat adequate animal products to increase the daily intake of vitamin B12. Further studies are needed to confirm these results.
Highlights
This vitamin B12-intrinsic factor complex is essentialVitamin B12 called Cobalamin, is a water soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal function of the brain and nervous system, in DNA synthesis and for the formation of blood (Roddie and Davis, 2009; Solomon, 2007)
Prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in the general population appears to increase among elderly people (Wolters et al, 2004)
Vitamin B12 is absorbed from food after binding to the protein intrinsic factor which is produced by the stomach
Summary
Vitamin B12 called Cobalamin, is a water soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal function of the brain and nervous system, in DNA synthesis and for the formation of blood (Roddie and Davis, 2009; Solomon, 2007). Vitamin B12 is absorbed from food after binding to the protein intrinsic factor which is produced by the stomach. The acidic environment of the stomach facilitates the release of vitamin B12 that is bound to rare genetic disorders (Roddie and Davis, 2009; Feng et al, 2009; Jang et al, 2002). Absorption problems due to lack of intrinsic or intestinal factors are thought to be the most common cause of vitamin B12 deficiency (Roddie and Davis, 2009). Intrinsic factor, which is released by parietal cells B12 have been reported in different populations The main objective of this work is to study the distribution of vitamin B12 concentration in a serum sample of healthy Jordanians who live in Ma'an district of Jordan in order to establish whether those subjects have an adequate concentration of vitamin B12
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