Micronutrients
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy in Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
The phenomenon caused by vitamin deficiency in the body is called avitaminosis, and is easily cured by vitamin supply through food or supplements. In contrast, an excess of vitamins in human body, called hypervitaminosis, is toxic for the organism and can also cause ailments. It would be interesting to emphasize the difference and the similarity between vitamin and vitamer. Essentially all vitamins exist with multiple nutritionally active chemical species, often called vitamers (34). Vitamer is a member of vitamin. The term vitamin is generally designed for natural compounds found in nature (plants, animals), while different derivatives, artificial synthetic compounds or chemical names of the vitamin are called vitamer. For example, vitamin D has several vitamers which are all fat-soluble, including vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol found in mushrooms, vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol present in the human or animal body, three other vitamers rarely occuring in nature, and four synthetic analogs. Among 13 essential vitamins, there are only three vitamins endowed with antioxidant properties: vitamins A, C, and E. Some vitamins act specifically as coenzymes. The 13 vitamins will be described as follows.
Experimental Stomatology
Samuel Dreizen, Barnet M. Levy in Handbook of Experimental Stomatology, 2020
All volunteers were in good condition and free from signs and symptoms of avitaminosis when the experiment began. During the 3rd and 4th week, they developed a fine, scaly, nonpruritic dermatitis that disappeared spontaneously. During the 7th and 8th weeks all showed a striking grayish pallor of the skin out of proportion to the blood picture interpreted as evidence of peripheral vasoconstriction. During the same period, the three white subjects showed definite atrophy of the lingual papillae; patchy and productive of a “geographic” tongue in the first, generalized in the second, and confined to the lateral third of the dorsum in the third. The black subject showed no changes in the tongue until the 14th week when a rather rapid denudation of the lingual papillae began. In each, the tongue remained pale throughout without any of the capillary engorgement characteristic of pellagra or ariboflavinosis. Other evidence of biotin deficiency included anorexia, nausea, vomiting, mental depression, muscle pains, paresthesias, and precordial discomfort. All signs and symptoms cleared rapidly following parenteral administration of a concentrate representing 150 to 200 μg biotin per day.
Incorporating Nutrition into the Primary Care Practice
David Heber, Zhaoping Li in Primary Care Nutrition, 2017
While classic vitamin deficiency diseases are rare today in the United States, except in certain high-risk groups (e.g., alcoholics, pregnant teenagers, and institutionalized elderly), there are a variety of individuals whose dietary intake is inadequate to maintain optimal health. For instance, it is recommended that Americans eat 25 g of fiber/day, but the average intake is only about 10 g. In California, only about one in five people consume five servings a day of fruits and vegetables, as recommended by the USDA. As a result, there are a number of micronutrient vitamins and minerals that are deficient, but not at levels that would cause disease. Examples include carotenoids, vitamin E, vitamin C, folate, and selenium. While the nutrient levels that constitute deficiency are established, there is little information on what is suboptimal or what types of responses can be expected following nutritional intervention. It is also unclear why there are individual variations in the absorption of a beta-carotene oral load, the effects of dietary fiber eaten at the same time, or the effects of various fats in the diet on absorption of micronutrients.
Expression of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor in chorionic villous in missed abortion
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2019
Olesya Bespalova, Margarita Bakleicheva, Irina Kovaleva, Gulrukhsor Tolibova, Tatiana Tral, Igor Kogan
The modern world despite its highly developed medicine and enlightened population faces a great problem of vitamin, micro-element and nutrient deficiency turning to become the XXI century pandemic. References it has been shown that vitamin deficiency may lead to hypovitaminosis or even of vitamin deficiency. Thus, 50–80% of pregnant women have vitamin deficiency [3] which is a disadvantageous context for gestation and delivery. May cause placenta formation disorders and increase pathologic condition or disease risk in newborns and infants [4]. While folic acid importance is well accepted and vitamin в9 addition on pregravidal and gravidal stages is recommended in all world guideline [5] as well as that of magnesium for successful conception and pregnancy prolongation, the evidence base for the necessity of other biologically active substance addition important for correct and harmonious pregnancy support and development is still discussed.
New pathogenic variant in the FGF10 gene in the agenesis of lacrimal and salivary gland syndrome: Ophthalmological and genetic study
Published in Ophthalmic Genetics, 2018
Maria Jesus Rodrigo, Miriam Idoipe, Silvia Izquierdo, Maria Satue, Antonio Mateo, Antonio Sanchez, Elena Garcia-Martin, Luis Pablo
The ophthalmological study revealed symptomatic hyposecretory dry eye. The Schirmer I test detected pathologic measurements: 3 mm in the right eye (OD) and 1 mm in the left eye (OS) at 5 minutes. Vitamin deficiency and autoimmunity were ruled out. Radiological exams showed glandular alterations: scintigraphy revealed parotid glands with functional abolition and submandibular glands with mild functional detriment, and MRI showed hypoplastic parotids with scant glandular tissue, few submandibular glands, atrophic lacrimal glands, and no facial abnormalities (see Figure 1(B)). The genetic study detected a heterozygous variant in exon 1 of the FGF10 gene: 73 p.Leu Arg (p.L73R) at position 218 (c.218T>G) (see Figure 2). To our knowledge, this variant has not been previously described either as a polymorphism or as a mutation causing pathology. To evaluate the potential pathogenicity of this variant, bioinformatic analyses were performed. The PolyPhen-2 predictor algorithm indicated impact as “possibly damaging” (0.995) and Mutation Taster predictor algorithm indicated “Disease Causing” (0.9999994), suggesting that this variant may involve an evolutionarily high preserved residue and that this amino acid change affects the physicochemical characteristics of the protein.
Impact of vitamin deficiency on microbiota composition and immunomodulation: relevance to autistic spectrum disorders
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2021
Roberta Ribeiro, Jacques Robert Nicoli, Gesivaldo Santos, Jane Lima-Santos
Since the first report in the literature by Cannell [50], hypovitaminosis D has been the most studied vitamin deficiency in the development of ASD in utero and in childhood. In a recent cohort study, low levels of vitamin D during pregnancy demonstrated as being strongly related to the increase of ASD risk and cognitive disabilities [51] (Table 1). Furthermore, low levels of vitamin D have been found in the serum of children with ASD and cognitive disabilities [6566–67]. Although the mechanism of vitamin D deficiency correlates with ASD development remains poorly understood, studies in murine models have shown that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy induces oxidative stress, affects calcium signalization, neurotransmission, and expression of important genes for development of language, intelligence and other cognitive skills, such as the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and forkhead box protein P2 (Foxp2) [6263–64] (Table 1).
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