Pernicious anemia can contribute to a delay in physical growth in children, and may also be a cause for delay in puberty for adolescents. Causes
Vitamin B12 cannot be produced by the human body, and must be obtained from the diet. When foods containing B12 are eaten, the vitamin is usually bound to protein and is released by proteases released by the pancreas into the small bowel. Following its release, most B12 is absorbed by the body in the small bowel (ileum) after binding to a protein known as intrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor is produced by parietal cells of the gastric mucosa (stomach lining) and the intrinsic factor-B12-complex is absorbed by enterocytes in the ileums cubam receptors. PA is characterised by B12 deficiency caused by the absence of intrinsic factor. Other disorders that can disrupt the absorption of vitamin B12 in the small intestine include celiac disease, surgical removal of crohns disease, and HIV. PA may be considered as an end stage of autoimmune atrophic gastritis, a disease characterised by stomach atrophy and the presence of antibodies to parietal cells and intrinsic factor. Autoimmune atrophic gastritis, is localised to the body of the stomach, where parietal cells are located. Antibodies to intrinsic factor and parietal cells cause the destruction of the oxyntic gastric mucosa, in which the parietal cells are located, leading to the subsequent loss of intrinsic factor synthesis. Without intrinsic factor, the ileum can no longer absorb the B12.
Whipple began evaluating the effects of treatments for anemia caused by chronic blood loss. Whipple, Huber, and Robchett have studied the effects on hemoglobin and blood regeneration of a variety of treatments – among which only raw liver has shown real promise. Serendipity is said to have played a role in this discovery. Whipple observed that blood regeneration was poor in dogs fed cooked liver after chronic blood loss, had it not been that a lazy laboratory technician had given the dogs raw liver, the much more dramatic response might not have been discovered at that point in history. Around 1926, George Minot and William P. Murphy, who learned of Whipples discovery, sought raw liver as a treatment for pernicious anemia. They later suggested a high-protein diet with high amounts of raw liver. This caused a rapid improvement in symptoms and a simultaneous rise in red blood cell counts. Fruit and iron were also part of the diet, and it appears that at this point, Minot and Murphy were not quite sure that the liver was a very important factor. It was thought that iron in liver tissue, not liver juice-soluble factor, cured hemorrhagic anemia in dogs. Thus, the discovery of liver juice as a treatment for pernicious anemia had been by coincidence.