Introduction

• Cobalamin (Vitamin B12) is an essential co-factor for the synthesis of components required for cell growth and maintenance
• Cobalamin is important for one-carbon metabolism which is involved with genome methylation and nucleotide synthesis
• Cancer cells have increased metabolic needs
• We hypothesized that cancer cell proliferation would be negatively affected if grown in cobalamin-deficient medium

Conclusions

• Cancer cell lines grew in growth medium with at most 5.38 x 10-11M cobalamin, which is the detection limit of the cobalamin ELISA assay used in our studies
• Cobalamin-restriction studies should be mindful of trace amounts of cobalamin in cell culture components, which are difficult to measure with most cobalamin detection assays
• Cobalamin detection assays with a lower limit of detection would allow for a more accurate measurement of cobalamin levels in tissue culture reagents, which may lead to a better understanding of cobalamin requirements for cell growth

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