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Metabolic Changes in Golden Hamsters Fed Vitamin B-12-Deficient Diets^1,2,

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Various metabolic changes were observed in male hamsters fed vitamin B-12-deficient diets with or without supplements of cobalt, methionine, and a previously untested cobalt-free pseudovitamin B-12. The effects observed after 31 weeks of consuming the vitamin B-12-deficient diets included a marked increase in the urinary excretion of both methylmalonic acid and formiminoglutamic acid, slight increases in red blood cell mean corpuscular volume, and higher tissue levels of glutathione and activities of glutathione reductase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Vitamin B-12 in the diet prevented these changes, as did inorganic cobalt. The cobalt-free pseudovitamin B-12 showed no vitamin B-12 activity, neither did it have any potent antagonistic effect. Methionine supplementation reversed some of the metabolic changes. Addition of inorganic cobalt to the diet resulted in a significant increase in tissue stores of vitamin B-12.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin B-12 • cobalt • glutathione • hamster

¹ Supported in part by USPHS AM-09195 and USPHS GM-01188.

² A preliminary report of part of this study was presented at the American Institute of Nutrition meeting in April, 1968 (Federation Proc. 27, 359, 1968).

³ Present address: Department of Home Economics, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192.

⁴ Present address: Mt. Pleasant, West Australia, Australia, 6153.

Manuscript received 10 September 1975.