An impaired 57CoB12 absorption and decrease in number of gastric chief cells in vitamin B2 deficient rats.

In a preceding report of ours1 we demonstrated an impaired intestinal absorp tion of 57CoB12 in vitamin B2 deficient rats and that this impairment of 57CoB12 absorption might be due to a deficiency of intrinsic factor caused by vitamin B2 deficiency. In 1963 Hsu2 made a detailed investigation upon intestinal absorption of 60CoB12 in rats with deficiency of other vitamins than vitamin B12 and concluded that the absorption of 60CoB12 was impaired only in pyridoxine deficiency, but not in deficiency of thiamine, riboflavin, panthothenic acid, biotin or choline. The purpose of the present investigation is to demonstrate again that an impaired intestinal absorption of 57CoB12 was surely resulted from vitamin B2 deficiency in rats. Furthermore, a decrease in 57CoB12 binding capacity of the homogenzied gastric mucosa of the B2 -deficient rats is also confirmed again, and atrophy and a decrease in number of gastric chief cells of the vitamin B2 deficient rats are demonstrated histologically.