American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 27, 580-583, Copyright © 1974 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Survey of vitamin B₁₂ and folate in the serum and marrow tissue of hospitalized patients

¹ From the Veterans Administration Hospital, East Orange, New Jersey 07019, and the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103

The sera and marrow tissues from 47 patients were assayed for their folate and vitamin B₁₂ content. The mean marrow folate and B₁₂ was 135.6 pg/mg and 14.6 pg/mg wet weight of marrow, respectively. Results suggest a size relationship between folate and B₁₂ pools in the serum and marrow with a constant folate/B₁₂ ratio. The ratio of the mean serum folate/mean serum B₁₂ is 9.8 and the mean marrow folate/mean marrow B₁₂ is 9.2. Re-expressed, the mean serum B₁₂/mean marrow B₁₂ is equal to the mean serum folate/mean marrow folate, indicating a similar partition of these two vitamins between serum and marrow. Correlation between serum folate levels and marrow folate levels is poor. Similarly, poor correlation was found between serum and marrow B₁₂.