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Bacterially Synthesized Folate in Rat Large Intestine is Incorporated into Host Tissue Folyl Polyglutamates^{1, 2,}

Vitamin Bioavailability Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University ^* Department of Community Health, School of Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111

Unlike mammalian tissues, certain intestinal microflora are capable of de novo synthesis of folate. To explore the availability of bacterially synthesized folate to the host organism, we used [³H] p-aminobenzoic acid (³H PABA) to label folate newly synthesized by the intestinal microflora. Labeled folates were isolated by affinity chromatography and identified by ion-pair HPLC. In this study [³H]PABA was injected into rat cecum to determine whether the [³H]folate synthesized by bacteria appeared in rat liver and other tissues. Rats were kept in sling suits to prevent coprophagy. Ion-pair chromatography of the purified liver folate demonstrated that bacterially derived [³H]folate was incorporated into all host liver-specific folate polyglutamates, mostly penta- and hexaglutamyl derivatives. Similar results were observed in kidney folates. These data provide direct evidence that some of the folate synthesized by the microflora in the rat large intestine is incorporated into the tissue folate of the host.

KEY WORDS: • intestinal microflora • folate • bioavailability • rats • p-aminobenzoic acid

¹ Presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology, April 1990, Washington, DC [Rong, N., Selhub, J., Goldin, B. R. & Rosenberg, I. H. (1990) Bioavailability of folate synthesized by intestinal microflora. FASEB J. 4: A502] as a finalist (Ni Rong) for the American Institute of Nutrition Graduate Abstract Competition.

² Supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service under contract No. 53-3K06-5-10.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 11 February 1991. Revision accepted 6 June 1991.

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