Source Of Vitamin B12 Research Articles

Binding of 60 Co-Vitamin B 12 by Ascaris suum Intestine

Ascaris suum intestine absorbs 6?Co-vitamin Bi2 mainly in the anterior 3 cm although there is lesser absorption along much of the intestinal length. Of the total radioactive Bi2 absorbed by the intestine, about 48% is bound and cannot be removed by dialysis. Dialyzed homogenates of intestines containing only bound vitamin were filtered to remove cellular debris and then treated with sulfosalicylic acid to precipitate proteins other than glycoor mucoproteins. The radioactivity of this precipitate averaged 23% in males and 19% in females of the total bound, labeled vitamin. These proteins were periodic-acid-Schiff-negative. Seven protein bands were separated by disk electrophoresis using 5% polyacrylamide gel. The glycoor mucoprotein, or proteins, were precipitated with phosphotungstic acid and this precipitate contained on the average 69% in males and 65% in females of the total bound, labeled vitamin. The mucoprotein, PAS-positive fraction contains the major binder or binders of vitamin B12. With the possible exception of a mammary tumor in mice (Wooley, 1955), multicellular organisms require an exogenous source of vitamin B12. The crops of birds and the stomachs of mammals secrete mucoproteins or mucopolysaccharides (intrinsic factors) which bind vitamin B12 and apparently assist in its absorption by certain portions of the intestine. Some helminth parasites compete with their hosts for this vitamin (von Bonsdorff, 1956; Nogueira and Perez, 1959; Nyberg, 1952, 1958; Scudamore, Thompson, and Owens, 1961), sometimes with such success that anemia is produced in the host (Griisbeck, 1960; Grasbeck, Nyberg, Saarni, and von Bonsdorff, 1962). The tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium latum, possibly possesses some compound capable of splitting vitamin B12 from the host's intrinsic factor (Grasbeck, 1960; Nyberg, Saarni, Gothoni, and Jaerventie, 1961). Although Ascaris suum absorbs considerable vitamin B12, it apparently cannot split the vitamin from the host's intrinsic factor, at least in vitro (Zam, Martin, and Thomas, 1963). The purpose of the present study was to determine if certain portions of the gut of Ascaris suum were more active than others in the uptake of vitamin B12; whether there was a binding substance (or substances), and the nature of the binding substance if such is

Rain as a Source of Vitamin B12

A VAST literature on cobalamines in natural waters has accumulated since bioassays were developed1–4. About 70 per cent of all species of freshwater and marine planktonic algae require some form of vitamin B12 more often than any other metabolite, a factor which has led to the recognition of the potential influence of this vitamin on the composition of the phytoplankton community5,6. Several reports have substantiated the assumption that vitamin B12 is important in this respect5–7. Important sources of vitamin B12 are in situ bacterial activity, soil runoff and clay-absorbed B12 (refs. 7–13).

In vitro Uptake of Co 60 -vitamin B 12 by Ascaris suum

The effect of sex, pH, time, and previous binding of cobaltw-labeled vitamin B12 On in vitro uptake by Ascaris suum was determined. Worms ligated at both ends did not absorb vitamin. In the range of pH from 4.4 to 8.4 at 0.2 intervals, the maximum uptake occurred at pH 6.4. Male tissues showed greater radioactivity than female. The uptake of vitamin by different sized males did not show a consistent pattern but small females absorbed more vitamin per gram of wet weight than did larger females. There was some increase in radioactivity of the reproductive systems after a 12-hr exposure to labeled vitamin and culture for 2 weeks in medium lacking B12. Neither entire worms nor tissue homogenates were able to free vitamin B12 that had been bound previously by hog intrinsic factor. Only certain microorganisms, with the possible exception of a mammary tumor in mice (Wooley, 1955), can synthesize vitamin B12 or some closely related compounds. Many microorganisms, such as Lactobacillus lactis, L. leichmannii, certain strains of Escherichia coli, Ochromonas malhamensis, Poteriochromonas stipitata, and Euglena gracilis, and most, if not all, animals require an exogenous source of vitamin B12. Crystalline vitamin B12 was isolated in 1948 by Smith in England and by Rickes and associates in the United States. Subsequently, its chemical structure has been reasonably well established, and it includes one atom of cobalt per molecule. Chaiet et al. (1950) introduced the use of Co6o-labeled vitamin B12. Cooperman et al. (1960) and Rosenblum et al. (1960) have shown that CoGo-vitamin B12 remains intact after absorption through the intestine or after injection, and therefore the radioactivity of tissues is an accurate index of the uptake of

Production of vitamin B12 and vitamin B12 analogues by pure cultures of ruminal bacteria.

MICROBIAL fermentation in the rumen was early recognized as the primary source of vitamin B12 for the cow1. Rumen contents contain not only the vitamin itself but also certain analogues in which the nucleotide portion of the vitamin is missing or modified by the substitution of a different benzimidazole or a purine for the base (5 : 6-dimethylbenzimidazole). In general, the analogues containing nucleotides with benzimidazole derivatives tend to possess some vitamin activity for animals while those containing purines tend to have activity only for micro-organisms2. The relative activities vary with different micro-organisms and even with the particular assay technique used3. In rumen contents, vitamin B12 itself makes up about 10 per cent of the activity for Escherichia coli, factor A (containing 2-methyl adenine) composes about 60 per cent, while pseudo-vitamin B12 (containing adenine), factor B (containing no nucleotide) and factor C (containing guanine) account for most of the remainder4. Relatively little work has been reported in regard to the part played in the synthesis of these compounds by the individual species of micro-organisms obtained from the rumen and in general such studies have not included true or functional rumen organisms5.

Vitamin B12 in Marine Ecology

AT least half the marine algal flagellates and diatoms which have been studied in pure culture have been shown1 to require an exogenous source of vitamin B12, which is the reason for an interest in the occurrence of this vitamin in the sea as one of the factors controlling phytoplankton populations and the productivity of water masses. However, the amount of vitamin required is very small ; just how small is not generally realized, and it may be that the amount found in the sea is never sufficiently low for an ecological control to be exerted on any of the comparatively very sparse populations of phytoplankton which happen to require the vitamin. Whether, in fact, this is so cannot be decided directly with natural populations for a number of reasons, but it has been possible to determine the magnitude of the requirement of vitamin B12 in one marine organism and then, assuming algae requiring vitamin B12 to be alike in this respect, to apply the result to data on marine populations and to assays of sea water for vitamin B12.

Assay of Feedstuffs and Concentrates for Vitamin B12 Potency

INTELLIGENT use of new sources of vitamin B12 in feeds requires reasonably accurate methods of assay. Methods of obtaining a vitamin B12 value of feedstuffs with a chick assay have been described by Bird, Rubin and Groschke (1948), Lillie, Denton and Bird (1949), Coates, Harrison and Kon (1950), and Ott (1951). The rat assay has been employed to estimate the B12 content of feedstuffs by Hartman, Dryden and Cary (1949), Lewis, Register and Elvehjem (1949), and Lewis, Register, Thompson and Elvehjem (1949). Ansbacher et al. (1949), Peeler, Yacowitz and Norris (1949), and Peeler et al. (1941), DeHeus and DeMan (1951), and Tarr (1952) have employed microbiological assays to estimate B12 of feedstuffs.Stokstad, Hoffman and Jukes (1949) were unable to obtain agreement in the vitamin B12 values estimated by microbiological and animal bioassays. Cheng and Thomas (1951) reported that the re-sults of vitamin B12 bioassays of kidneys by the laboratory …

水産動物のビタミンB<sub>12</sub>について-IV

Predatory activity of the yellow starfish, Asterias amurensis versicolor Sladen, has teen so rampant in clam culture grounds in the Tokyo Bay that commercial harvest of clams for the present season and in the future has been seriously threatened. In the course of investigating the situation, attention has been attracted to the vitamin B12 contents of the asteriod which was expected to be as high as its food, shell-fish, in view of knowledge obtair. d p eviously1). Of numbers of individuals collected from the invaded area in February and March, 1954 the samples which were apparently in a medium size presented the weight by anatomical parts as shown in Table 1. The vitamin B12 contents have been determined by microbiological assay using Euglena as the test organism. As the result it has been revealed that the viscera, and especially the pyloric caecum, contain vitamin B12 by far more than those of other marine animals, except ?? few cases, reporte1 in the preceding papers1) (Table 2). Since vitamin B12 can be easily extracted from the starfish by enzymic digestion, as has been demonstrated (Table 3), it is suggested that this echinoderm may be utilized as a potential source of vitamin B12 for human consumption as well as for feeding of livestock, providing an adequate mcthcd for industrial prccessing is established. And such utilization, if avilable on industrial scales, will have an effect, at the same time, to alleviate depredation of the starfish upon commercially important shell-fish in the area.

Antibiotic and Vitamin B12 Supplements as Related to the Crude Protein Level of Bobwhite Quail Diets ,

THE beneficial effects of antibiotics and vitamin B12 supplements in all-vegetable starting rations for chickens are well known. Berry et al. (1945) and Mishler et al. (1948) demonstrated the supplementary action of condensed fish solubles in soybean oil meal rations for chickens and attributed the effects to unidentified factors. One of these factors has been shown to be vitamin B12 by Ott et al. (1948) and Nichol et al. (1949) in their reports that crystalline vitamin B12 would replace the animal protein factor activity of crude sources of vitamin B12, one of which is condensed fish solubles. Factors other than vitamin B12 were soon recognized as being present in these crude sources of vitamin B12 (Carlson et al. 1949; and Stokstad et al. 1949). These included, among others, antibiotics and an unknown growth factor believed to be present in condensed fish solubles.That vitamin B12 bears some relation to protein …

The Effects of Homocystine, Methionine, Vitamin B12, and Antibiotics in a Methionine Deficient Chick Ration

KLOSE and Almquist (1941) reported that when fed alone neither homocystine nor cystine was equal to methionine in promoting growth of chicks; however, when the two were fed in combination, they effectively replaced methionine. Jukes, Stokstad and Broquist (1950) reported that vitamin B12 may be needed in the transformation of homocystine to methionine in chicks.Patton, Marvel, Petering and Waddell (1946) reported that the growth-promoting effect of methionine as a supplement to a corn-soybean ration was no longer observed when sardine meal was added to the basal ration. That methionine improved the growth of pigs on a cornpeanut meal diet only in the absence of an animal protein factor supplement was reported by Cunha et al. (1949). A simplified ration containing an alcohol-extracted soybean protein was fed by Jukes, Stokstad and Broquist (1950) to chicks hatched from eggs laid by hens receiving a diet containing no source of vitamin B12. .

Vitamin B12 and Antibiotics in the Diet of Turkey Poults from Hens Fed No Animal Protein

VITAMIN B12 has been shown to give a growth response in chicks fed a ration containing no animal protein supplements (Ott, 1948). In turkey poults Scott et al. (1948) were unable to demonstrate a growth response by the addition of yeast and liver concentrate, which was a source of vitamin B12. Lillie et al. (1949) obtained increased growth in poults with fish meal or meat meal in the ration. They suggested that the improvement was due to the vitamin B12 content of these products, although a vitamin B12 concentrate or crystalline vitamin B12 was not tested. McGinnis et al. (1949), Singsen et al. (1950), Stokstad and Jukes (1950) Combs and Shaffner (1950), and Patrick (1951) have reported that vitamin B12 or vitamin B12 concentrates produce no growth response in poults, although several natural feedstuffs, fermentation products, and antibiotics were shown to increase the rate of growth. Almquist and Merritt (1951) .

The Use of Isolated Soybean Protein in Synthetic Diets for Chicks

ALPHA protein,22Alpha protein is manufactured by the Glidden Co., Chicago, Illinois. an isolated soybean protein, has been used in synthetic diets by various investigators as a source of purified vegetable protein. Neumann et al. (1950) have used it successfully for the production of a vitamin B12 deficiency in baby pigs. Carlson et al. (1949) and Sunde et al. (1950) used alpha protein in diets designed to study growth of the chick. Although their diets contained sources of vitamin B12 the authors observed high mortality and poor growth unless the diets were supplemented with natural feedstuffs, such as, yeast, fish meal or cereal products. These results were interpreted as evidence that the diets were deficient in an unidentified growth factor or factors.Alpha protein was first used in this laboratory in the summer of 1949 and in most trials satisfactory growth was obtained. An occasional failure to obtain satisfactory growth, coupled with the observations of Carlson et al. (1949) and .

Influence of Vitamin B12 and Antibiotics on Hatchability

SEVERAL investigators have reported that vitamin B12 is essential for hatchability, and that it can successfully replace animal proteins as a source of vitamin B12. A.P.F. supplements containing this vitamin improved hatchability with an all-vegetable diet as reported by Lindstrom et al. (1949a), Carver and McGinnis (1950a), and Hill et al. (1950). Crystalline vitamin B12 has also been shown to support good hatchability by Petersen et al. 1950), Carver and McGinnis (1950b), and Milligan and Combs (1950).This paper reports the results obtained when hens, which had received various levels of vitamin B12 for an 8-week experimental period, were returned to the all-vegetable basal ration. The value of feeding antibiotics on hatchability with or without vitamin B12 has been investigated and the results are presented.EXPERIMENTALNinety-six White Leghorn hens were placed in individual raised wire-bottom laying cages at approximately 5 months of age. A ration low in vitamin B12, .

The Feeding of Antibiotics to Pigs

The credit for the discovery that antibiotics in stable form added to feedstuffs (in amounts so small that they resemble vitamins) have growth-promoting properties, goes to Lederle Laboratories, a subsidiary of the American Cyanamid Company. This was in 1948 and was revealed during studies with residues following the manufacture of aureomycin. It was found that these were a rich source of vitamin B12 which had been discovered to have growth-promoting properties when added to all-vegetable diets. But the aureomycin residues contained a further stimulus to growth which was later found to be related to the antibiotic itself.

Lysine and Methionine Requirement of Chicks Fed Practical Diets

ALMQUIST and Mecchi (1942) found the l-lysine requirement of chickens on a synthetic diet composed largely of zein and cerelose to be approximately 0.9 percent. Their work was confirmed by Grau, Kratzer and Asmundson in 1946. Grau (1946) fed two-week-old chickens a diet composed largely of cottonseed meal and cerelose, devoid of any source of vitamin B12, for an eight-day period with supplementary amino acids. He determined that there was a critical need for at least 0.46 percent additional l-lysine in such a ration. On this basis, a lysine deficiency would be likely in a practical diet containing cottonseed meal as the only protein supplement.In 1931, Mussehl and Ackerson reported that cottonseed meal was a less satisfactory protein supplement than soybean meal for chick growth. Ringrose and Morgan (1938) reported that cottonseed meal could be fed successfully as three-fourths of the protein supplement in combination with meat scraps. Curtin .

The Use of an Animal Protein Factor Supplement in a Practical Poultry Ration

IT HAS been demonstrated that fishmeal is a good source of vitamin B12, and possibly one or more unidentified growth factors for the chick (Brant and Carver 1947, Carlson et al., 1949, Combs, et al., 1948, Heuser et al., 1946, Hill 1948, McGinnis and Carver 1947, Weise et al., 1948, Weise et al., 1949). It is possible, therefore, that in many practical diets for chicks the peculiar value of fishmeal may lie chiefly in its contribution of these factors rather than its contribution of indispensable amino acids.Relatively inexpensive sources of vitamin B12 are now available commercially in the form of concentrates prepared as fermentation by-products in the production of antibiotics. These concentrates have been suggested as a total or partial replacement for fishmeal and certain other protein supplements in poultry diets. Indeed several papers have already appeared describing investigations of this kind (Briggs et al., 1949, Lindstrom et al., 1949, Weise et .

Vitamin B12 and Histamine

SINCE evidence has been accumulated that a release of histamine, or histamine-like substances, accounts, completely or partially, for anaphylactic shock in animals1, an attempt has been made to find out whether vitamin B12, which has been shown to possess a protective action on anaphylactic shock in the guinea pig2, could also have an anti-histaminic activity. Vitamin B12 has therefore been tested on guinea pigs in which a histaminic shock was provoked ; as source of vitamin B12, ‘Rubramin’ (Squibb) vials of 15 γ have been used.

The Role and Sources of Vitamin B12

The Role and Sources of Vitamin B12

Distribution of vitamin B12 in natural materials.

SummaryThe vitamin B12 content of a number of natural materials as determined by the rat assay is presented. Fish solubles, streptomycin “slops”, sheep rumen contents and glandular meats are excellent sources of vitamin B12. Muscle tissue, eggs and milk products contain lesser amounts, whereas plant materials show no measurable activity.

Relative Requirement and Source of Vitamin B12 for Turkeys and Chickens during the Later Stages of Growth

IT has been reported previously that an unknown dietary factor present in cow manure, in fish meal, and in smaller quantities in meat meal is required for growth of chickens (Rubin and Bird, 1946; Bird, Rubin, and Groschke, 1948) and of turkeys (Bird, Marsden, and Kellogg, 1948). Later it was shown that crystalline vitamin B12 produced an effect on growing chickens comparable to the effect of crude sources of the unknown factor (Ott, et al., 1948; Lillie, et al., 1948). Although the possible existence of other effective growth factors in the feedstuffs and crude concentrates previously studied cannot be excluded, and although crystalline vitamin B12 has not yet been tested with turkeys, it seems justifiable to ascribe the previously observed growth-stimulating effect of cow manure, fish meal, and meat meal to vitamin B12 potency. This term will therefore be substituted here for the term “unknown growth factor” used in previous .

Cane Molasses versus Beet Molasses as a Source of Vitamin B6 and Lactoflavin

ConclusionsCrude cane molasses is a good source of vitamin B6, the B6 titer varying from 0.1 to 0.4 gm. per rat per day, with an average of 0.15 gm. Crude cane molasses also contains small amounts of lactoflavin. Beet molasses is practically devoid of both vitamin B6 and lactoflavin.