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Effect of Vitamin B₁₂ in Choline Deficiency in the Rat¹

Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

Several diets varying in methionine content and low in choline and vitamin B₁₂ were prepared using different amounts of extracted peanut meal supplemented with amino acids. Most of the diets contained added homocystine as well. Marked growth inhibition was observed within 2 to 3 weeks in weanling male rats and, provided the level of methionine in the diet was not too low, vitamin B₁₂, choline or methionine supplementation promoted rapid and approximately equal growth. The 3 supplements also prevented fatty liver, liver fibrosis, and kidney scarring although vitamin B₁₂ was not always completely effective. Urinary formiminoglutamic acid (FIGLU) excretion was high with the deficient diet and was decreased to nearly zero by vitamin B₁₂ or methionine supplements. The presence or absence of folic acid in these diets had little effect on the performance of the animals or the lesions seen although a moderate growth response occurred in the presence of vitamin B₁₂. When homocystine was not included in the diet (and methionine synthesis presumably blocked), supplements of vitamin B₁₂ and folic acid did not completely prevent FIGLU excretion. The excretion of this metabolite would not appear to be due to a deficiency of vitamin B₁₂ or folic acid per se.

Manuscript received 12 January 1967.