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Malabsorption of Vitamin B 12
Author(s) -
HIPPE ERIK
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1966.tb15243.x
Subject(s) - malabsorption , intrinsic factor , medicine , vitamin b , vitamin , vitamin b12 , absorption (acoustics) , gastroenterology , etiology , megaloblastic anemia , parenteral nutrition , cyanocobalamin , endocrinology , physics , acoustics
Summary A 1‐year‐old boy with a characteristic entity which was first described by Imerslund [12] and Grasbeck et al. [S] is presented. The disease manifests itself as a megaloblastic anaemia caused by a selective malabsorption of vitamin B 12 from the intestinal tract. The content of acid and intrinsic factor in the gastric juice is normal. The blood picture becomes normal after parenteral administration of vitamin B 12 . Furthermore, the patient has persistent proteinuria. We tried to establish the aetiology of malabsorption of vitamin B 12 by administering intestinal juice from normal subjects, by which procedure an increased intestinal absorption of vitamin B 12 was demonstrated. This finding indicates the absence in these patients of a factor (“releasing factor”?) which is normally present in the intestinal juice and which is of importance for the absorption of vitamin B 12 . Our present knowledge as to the absorption of vitamin B 12 is reviewed briefly, and a theory is advanced, partly founded on experiments, to the effect that vitamin B 12 is normally absorbed in a peptide‐bound form.