Folate and anemia: Inadequate serum levels of folate can be caused by increased demand (for example, pregnancy and lactation; see p. 372), poor absorption caused by pathology of the small intestine, alcoholism, or treatment with drugs (for example, methotrexate) that are dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors (see Fig. 28.2). A folate-free diet can cause a deficiency within a few weeks. A primary result of folic acid deficiency is megaloblastic anemia (see Fig. 28.4), caused by diminished synthesis of purine nucleotides and TMP, which leads to an inability of cells (including RBC precursors) to make DNA and, therefore, an inability to divide.
2.
Folate and neural tube defects: Spina bifida and anencephaly, the most common neural tube defects (NTD), affect ~3,000 pregnancies in the United States annually. Folic acid supplementation before conception and during the first trimester has been shown to significantly reduce NTD. Therefore, all women of childbearing age are advised to consume 0.4 mg/day (400 µg/day) of folic acid to reduce the risk of having a pregnancy affected by NTD and ten times that amount if a previous pregnancy was affected. Adequate folate nutrition must occur at the time of conception because critical folate-dependent development occurs in the first weeks of fetal life, at a time when many women are not yet aware of their pregnancy. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the addition of folic acid to wheat flour and enriched grain products, resulting in a dietary supplementation of ~0.1 mg/day. This supplementation allows ~50% of all reproductive-aged women to receive 0.4 mg of folate from all sources.
III. COBALAMIN (VITAMIN B12)
Vitamin B12 is required in humans for two essential enzymatic reactions: the remethylation of homocysteine (Hcy) to methionine and the isomerization of methylmalonyl coenzyme A (CoA), which is produced during the degradation of some amino acids (isoleucine, valine, threonine, and methionine) and fatty acids (FA) with odd numbers of carbon atoms (Fig. 28.5). When cobalamin is deficient, unusual (branched) FA accumulate and become incorporated into cell membranes, including those of the central nervous system (CNS). This may account for some of the neurologic manifestations of vitamin B12 deficiency. [Note: Folic acid (as N5-methyl THF) is also required in the remethylation of
Hcy. Therefore, deficiency of B12 or folate results in elevated Hcy levels.]
A. Structure and coenzyme forms
Cobalamin contains a corrin ring system that resembles the porphyrin ring of heme (see p. 279), but differs in that two of the pyrrole rings are linked directly rather than through a methene bridge. Cobalt (see p. 407) is held in the center of the corrin ring by four coordination bonds with the nitrogens of the pyrrole groups. The remaining coordination bonds of the cobalt are with the nitrogen of 5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole and with cyanide in commercial preparations of the vitamin in the form of cyanocobalamin (Fig. 28.6). The physiologic coenzyme forms of cobalamin are 5′deoxyadenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin, in which cyanide is replaced with 5′-deoxyadenosine or a methyl group, respectively (see Fig. 28.6).
B. Distribution