Intrinsic factor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gastric intrinsic factor (vitamin B synthesis)

Rendering based on PDB 2CKT
Available structures
PDB Ortholog search: PDBe, RCSB
Identifiers
SymbolsGIF; IF; IFMH; INF; TCN3
External IDsOMIM: 609342 MGI: 1202394 HomoloGene: 3773 GeneCards: GIF Gene
Orthologs
SpeciesHumanMouse
Entrez269414603
EnsemblENSG00000134812ENSMUSG00000024682
UniProtP27352P52787
RefSeq (mRNA)NM_005142NM_008118
RefSeq (protein)NP_005133NP_032144
Location (UCSC)Chr 11:
59.6 – 59.61 Mb
Chr 19:
11.75 – 11.76 Mb
PubMed search

Intrinsic factor (IF), also known as gastric intrinsic factor (GIF), is a glycoprotein produced by the parietal cells of the stomach. It is necessary for the absorption of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) later on in the small intestine. In humans, the gastric intrinsic factor protein is encoded by the GIF gene.[1]

Upon entry into the stomach, vitamin B12 becomes bound to haptocorrin (aka HC, R factor, transcobalamin I, TCN1), a glycoprotein. The resulting complex enters the duodenum, where pancreatic enzymes digest haptocorrin. In the less acidic environment of the small intestine, B12 can then bind to intrinsic factor. This new complex travels to the ileum, where special epithelial cells endocytose them. Inside the cell, B12 dissociates once again and binds to another protein, transcobalamin II (TCN2). The new complex can exit the epithelial cells to enter the liver.

Site of secretion

The intrinsic factor is secreted by the stomach. It is present in the gastric juice as well as in the gastric mucous membrane. The optimum pH for its action is 7 and it is inactivated at temperatures above 45 °C. It does not necessarily run parallel with the amount of HCl or pepsin in the gastric juice. So in some cases, the intrinsic factor may be present even if there is no HCl or pepsin or vice versa. The site of formation of the intrinsic factor varies in different species. In pigs it is obtained from the pylorus and beginning of the duodenum. In human beings it is present in the fundus and body of the stomach.

Clinical significance

In pernicious anemia, which is usually an autoimmune disease, autoantibodies directed against intrinsic factor or parietal cells themselves lead to an intrinsic factor deficiency, malabsorption of vitamin B12, and subsequent megaloblastic anemia. Atrophic gastritis can also cause intrinsic factor deficiency and anemia through damage to the parietal cells of the stomach wall. Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency can interfere with normal dissociation of vitamin B12 from its binding proteins in the small intestine, preventing its absorption via the intrinsic factor complex.

Other risk factors contributing to pernicious anemia are anything that damages or removes a portion of the stomach's parietal cells, including bariatric surgery, gastric tumors, gastric ulcers, and excessive consumption of alcohol.

Treatment

Patients experiencing an insufficiency in their intrinsic factor levels cannot benefit from a low dose oral vitamin B12 supplement, because it will not absorb through the wall of the small intestine. Historically, the disease was thought untreatable before the discovery that it could be managed with daily uptake of 300 g raw liver pulp (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1934 to Whipple, Minot & Murphy). Unlike other water soluble vitamins, vitamin B12 is stored in the liver. The high dose of vitamin B12 thus ingested allowed enough of it to be taken up passively. As more and more potent liver extracts became available this repugnant treatment became unnecessary, improving the life quality of the patients. Today synthetic vitamin B12 is injected monthly, thus bypassing the digestive tract altogether. More recently, Swedish researchers discovered that sufficiently large doses of B12 can also be absorbed sublingually, removing the necessity for injectable B12.[2] However, no standards have been set for treatment by the sublingual route yet, and injections of B12 are the only reliable method of treatment.

Model organisms

Model organisms have been used in the study of intrinsic factor function. A conditional knockout mouse line, called Giftm1a(KOMP)Wtsi[6][7] was generated as part of the International Knockout Mouse Consortium program — a high-throughput mutagenesis project to generate and distribute animal models of disease to interested scientists.[8][9][10]

Male and female animals underwent a standardized phenotypic screen to determine the effects of deletion.[4][11] Twenty-seven tests were carried out on mutant mice and four significant abnormalities were observed. Homozygous mutant males displayed increased aggression towards their pups and therefore had reduced fecundity. Mutants of both sex had increased susceptibility to infection with both Citrobacter and Salmonella.[4]

References

  1. Hewitt JE, Gordon MM, Taggart RT, Mohandas TK, Alpers DH (June 1991). "Human gastric intrinsic factor: characterization of cDNA and genomic clones and localization to human chromosome 11". Genomics 10 (2): 432–40. doi:10.1016/0888-7543(91)90329-D. PMID 2071148. 
  2. AU - Berlin H, Berlin R, Brante G (1968). "ORAL TREATMENT OF PERNICIOUS ANEMIA WITH HIGH DOSES OF VITAMIN B12 WITHOUT INTRINSIC FACTOR". Acta Medica Scandinavica 184 (1-6): 247–258. doi:10.1111/j.0954-6820.1968.tb02452.x. 
  3. "Citrobacter infection data for Gif". Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Gerdin AK (2010). The Sanger Mouse Genetics Programme: high throughput characterisation of knockout mice. Acta Ophthalmologica 88: 925-7.: Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.1755-3768.2010.4142.x. 
  5. Mouse Resources Portal, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
  6. "International Knockout Mouse Consortium". 
  7. "Mouse Genome Informatics". 
  8. Skarnes, W. C.; Rosen, B.; West, A. P.; Koutsourakis, M.; Bushell, W.; Iyer, V.; Mujica, A. O.; Thomas, M.; Harrow, J.; Cox, T.; Jackson, D.; Severin, J.; Biggs, P.; Fu, J.; Nefedov, M.; De Jong, P. J.; Stewart, A. F.; Bradley, A. (2011). "A conditional knockout resource for the genome-wide study of mouse gene function". Nature 474 (7351): 337–342. doi:10.1038/nature10163. PMC 3572410. PMID 21677750. 
  9. Dolgin E (June 2011). "Mouse library set to be knockout". Nature 474: 262–263. doi:10.1038/474262a. PMID 21677718. 
  10. Collins FS, Rossant J, Wurst W (January 2007). "A mouse for all reasons". Cell 128 (1): 9–13. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.12.018. PMID 17218247. 
  11. van der Weyden L, White JK, Adams DJ, Logan DW (2011). "The mouse genetics toolkit: revealing function and mechanism.". Genome Biol 12 (6): 224. doi:10.1186/gb-2011-12-6-224. PMC 3218837. PMID 21722353. 

Further reading

External links

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