Failure of Menadione to affect Folate Utilization in Vitamin B12-deficient Human Beings

IT has been suggested that vitamin B 12 -deficiency in man may produce a defect in folate utilization due to trapping of L. casei folate activity 1 . This suggestion has recently received support in the British literature 2 . The trapped folate is probably some form of N -5-methyltetrahydrofolic aci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1964-01, Vol.201 (4915), p.196-197
Main Authors: HERBERT, VICTOR, STREIFF, RICHARD R., SULLIVAN, LOUIS W., FRIEDKIN, MORRIS
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:IT has been suggested that vitamin B 12 -deficiency in man may produce a defect in folate utilization due to trapping of L. casei folate activity 1 . This suggestion has recently received support in the British literature 2 . The trapped folate is probably some form of N -5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid 3 . Donaldson and Keresztesy 4 reported that N -5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid can be enzymatically oxidized to N -5,10-methylene-tetrahydrofolic acid in the presence of menadione (a synthetic preparation with vitamin K activity) as electron acceptor. This raised the possibility that supplying this electron acceptor might break the assumed block in folate utilization present in vitamin B 12 -deficieney.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/201196a0