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Vitamin B-6 Requirements of Elderly Men and Women^1,2,

U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111 and the Tufts University School of Nutrition, Medford, MA 02155

The vitamin B-6 requirements of 12 men and women over 60 y old were studied. The protocol consisted of a 5-d baseline period and four experimental periods during which the subjects successively received 0.003, 0.015, 0.0225 and 0.03375 mg of vitamin B-6/(kg body wt·d). Dietary protein was 1.2 or 0.8 g/(kg body wt·d). At 5- or 6-d intervals, xanthurenic acid (XA) after a 5-g L-tryptophan load and 4-pyridoxic acid (4-PA) in 24-h urine, erythrocyte aspartate aminotransferase activity coefficient (EAST-AC) and plasma pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) were measured. These measurements were abnormal during vitamin B-6 depletion but returned to normal during repletion. Men who ingested 120 g protein/d required 1.96 ± 0.11 mg of vitamin B-6 to normalize XA; women who ingested 78 g protein/d required 1.90 ± 0.18 mg of vitamin B-6 to normalize XA. To attain normal levels of EAST-AC and 4-PA in men, 2.88 ± 0.17 mg of vitamin B-6 were needed; to normalize PLP, 1.96 ± 0.11 mg of vitamin .B-6 were required. Women required 1.90 ± 0.18 mg or more of vitamin B-6 to normalize these measurements. Vitamin B-6 requirements were not decreased in two of three subjects who ingested 54 g of protein daily. Thus, vitamin B-6 requirements of elderly men and women are about 1.96 and 1.90 mg/d, respectively.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin B-6 • xanthurenic acid • aspartate aminotransferase • pyridoxal-5'-phosphate • 4-pyridoxic acid • humans

¹ An abstract describing preliminary data was presented at the meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, May 1–5, 1988, Las Vegas, NV [Ribaya-Mercado, J. D., Russell, R. M., Sahyoun, N., Morrow, F. D. & Gershoff, S. N. (1988) Vitamin B6 requirements of the elderly. FASEB J. 2: A847 (abs. 3203)].

² This study was supported by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Contract Number 53-3K06-5-10. The contents of this paper do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U. S. Department of Agriculture nor does mention of trade names or commercial products imply endorsement by the United States government.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 19 March 1990. Revision accepted 19 November 1990.

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