General description

Cyanocobalamin (B12) is a water soluble vitamin, commonly called as cobalamins. Dairy products, meat and eggs are the major sources of this vitamin.

Application

Vitamin B12 has been used:

as a component of Erdschreiber′s medium
as a supplement of Dulbecco′s modified Eagle′s medium used for the isolation of ventricular myocytes from neonatal and adult rats
orally administered to male quails to study its role in reducing the negative effects of sodium selenite intoxication, in vivo
as a supplement in DMEM/ medium 199 (M199) medium for differentiation of human myoblasts.

Biochem/physiol Actions

Vitamin B12 is metabolized to its active form, methylcobalamin. Hindered vitamin B12 uptake is observed in pernicious anemia. Vitamin B12 is essential for erythroblast development. Pregnancy reduces the levels of vitamin B12. Aging reduces vitamin B12 absorption. It works as a coenzyme in fat, carbohydrate and protein metabolism. It is required for growth, genetic stability and survival of cells in vitro. Functions to support one-carbon metabolism. Present in many classical and serum-free formulations.