期刊名称：Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology
印刷版ISSN：0301-4800
电子版ISSN：1881-7742
出版年度：1992
卷号：38
期号：4
页码：305-316
DOI：10.3177/jnsv.38.305
出版社：Center for Academic Publications Japan
摘要：The state of vitamin B12-deficiency in rats was evaluated by determination of hepatic vitamin B12-dependent enzyme activities after the animals had fed on a vitamin B12-deficient soybean protein diet for 150 days. The effect of vitamin B12-deficiency on testicular tissue was also studied by morphological observations. Growth of vitamin B12-deficient rats was retarded and marked increase in urinary methylmalonic acid was observed. Vitamin B12 contents in the organs were depressed distinctly by the deficiency, especially in testes, vitamin B12 content decreased to 2.5ng/g. Hepatic methionine synthase and methylmalonyl-CoA mutase ac-tivities showed striking depression to 5% of the control rats and extreme vitamin B12-deficiency was confirmed. Testes weight also showed marked decrease together with their relative weight per 100 g body weight. Mor-phological observations of testes of vitamin B12-deficient rats revealed atrophy of the seminiferous tubules and aplasia of sperms and spermatids. The above results proved that vitamin B12-deficiency affected rat testes, and suggested that the rat could be the animal model for elucidation of themechanism of B12 action on testicular functions.
