Folic acid handling by the human gut: implications for food fortification
and supplementation1–3
Imran Patanwala, Maria J King, David A Barrett, John Rose, Ralph Jackson, Mark Hudson, Mark Philo, Jack R Dainty,
Anthony JA Wright, Paul M Finglas, and David E Jones
ABSTRACT
Background: Current thinking, which is based mainly on rodent
studies, is that physiologic doses of folic acid (pterylmonoglutamic
acid), such as dietary vitamin folates, are biotransformed in the
intestinal mucosa and transferred to the portal vein as the natural
circulating plasma folate, 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid (5-MTHF)
before entering the liver and the wider systemic blood supply.
Objective: We tested the assumption that, in humans, folic acid is
biotransformed (reduced and methylated) to 5-MTHF in the intestinal
mucosa.
Design: We conducted a crossover study in which we sampled
portal and peripheral veins for labeled folate concentrations after
oral ingestion with physiologic doses of stable-isotope–labeled
folic acid or the reduced folate 5-formyltetrahydrofolic acid (5-
FormylTHF) in 6 subjects with a transjugular intrahepatic porto
systemic shunt (TIPSS) in situ. The TIPSS allowed blood samples
to be taken from the portal vein.
Results: Fifteen minutes after a dose of folic acid, 80 6 12% of
labeled folate in the hepatic portal vein was unmodified folic acid.
In contrast, after a dose of labeled 5-FormylTHF, only 4 6 18% of
labeled folate in the portal vein was unmodified 5-FormylTHF, and
the rest had been converted to 5-MTHF after 15 min (postdose).
Conclusions: The human gut appears to have a very efficient capacity
to convert reduced dietary folates to 5-MTHF but limited
ability to reduce folic acid. Therefore, large amounts of unmodified
folic acid in the portal vein are probably attributable to an extremely
limited mucosal cell dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) capacity that
is necessary to produce tetrahydrofolic acid before sequential methylation
to 5-MTHF. This process would suggest that humans are
reliant on the liver for folic acid reduction even though it has a low
and highly variable DHFR activity. Therefore, chronic liver exposure
to folic acid in humans may induce saturation, which would
possibly explain reports of systemic circulation of unmetabolized
folic acid. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as
NCT02135393. Am J Clin Nutr 2014;100:593–9.
INTRODUCTION
Naturally occurring dietary folates are a group of water soluble
polyglutamate tetrahydrofolate B vitamins (mainly methyltetrahydrofolates
and formyltetrahydrofolates) that are vital single
carbon donors in human metabolism. A low folate status has been
associated with adverse health outcomes. In pregnancy, it is
unambiguously associated with increased risk of fetal neural tube
defects that can be reduced by periconceptual folic acid supplementation
(1). A low folate status has also been associated
with elevated plasma homocysteine, which has been a suggested
risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and dementia (2–4),
and altered DNA methylation and uracil-induced genomic instability,
which may increase risk of colorectal cancer in theory
(5) but perhaps not in practice (6). Therefore, an optimal dietary
intake of folate is important. An alternative approach, which would
give universal benefit, is to fortify food with folic acid. A number
of countries, including the United States, Canada, and Chile already
have mandatory programs of folic acid fortification of flour (7).
Concerns have been mounting about the safety of a persistent
exposure to folic acid that results in the circulation of unmetabolized
folic acid (8), including the potential for masking vitamin B-12
deficiency (9) and the acceleration of cognitive decline in the elderly
with a lowvitamin B-12 status (10, 11). An increase in the incidence
of prostate and other cancers was seen in studies performed to
address the hypothesis that folic acid supplementation reduces
cancer risk, and an increase in overall mortality was seen in patients
who were taking folic acid supplements (12–15).
That dietary folate is beneficial but supplemental folic acid may
have some detrimental effects is a paradox because both dietary
folates and folic acid are taken up by mucosal cells with a similar
affinity by the proton-coupled folate transporter (16), and the
absorptive mucosa simply rearranges 5-formyltetrahydrofolic acid
(5-FormylTHF)4 to 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid (5-MTHF) before
transport to the serosal side (17) and transports 5-MTHF
1 From the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle
upon Tyne, United Kingdom (IP, MH, and DEJ); the Institute of Food Research,
Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom (MJK, MP, JRD,
AJAW, and PMF); the Centre for Analytical Bioscience, School of Pharmacy,
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (DAB); and
the Department of Radiology, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne,
United Kingdom (JR and RJ).
2 Supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (grants BB/F014104/1 and BB/FO14457/1). This is an open access
article distributed under the CC-BY license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/3.0/).
3 Address correspondence to DE Jones, Institute of Cellular Medicine,
Fourth Floor,William Leech Building, Medical School, Framlington Place, Newcastle
upon Tyne NE20 0SU, United Kingdom. E-mail: david.jones@ncl.ac.uk.
4 Abbreviations used: DHFR, dihydrofolate reductase; TIPSS, transjugular
intrahepatic porto systemic shunt; 5-FormylTHF, 5-formyltetrahydrofolic
acid; 5-MTHF, 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid.
ReceivedNovember 21, 2013. Accepted for publication May 12, 2014.
First published online June 18, 2014; doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.080507.
Am J Clin Nutr 2014;100:593–9. Printed in USA. 593
Downloaded from ajcn.nutrition.org by guest on November 17, 2015
unchanged. The generally accepted wisdom (derived from rodent
studies) is that physiologic doses of folic acid are biotransformed
in the intestinal absorptive mucosa and transferred to the hepatic
portal vein as 5-MTHF in the same way as dietary folates (18–
20). That this process may also be applicable to humans may have
been a misreading of an article that concluded “under physiological
conditions only 5-MTHF reaches the blood.” However,
the article referred to a study where only a small percentage of
ingested folate was folic acid (21). This apparent consensus was
challenged by studies that showed a significantly different systemic
plasma (labeled) 5-MTHF appearance after the ingestion of
single, physiologic doses of stable-isotope–labeled vitamin folates
and folic acid (22).
The aim of the current study was to identify the site of
biotransformation of folic acid in humans by sampling portal
venous blood from subjects with a transjugular intrahepatic
porto systemic shunt (TIPSS) in situ who were exposed to orally
ingested labeled folic acid or a physiologic dietary folate (formyltetrahydrofolic
acid).
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Study design
In the current study, we used an opportunity offered by subjects
with an in situ TIPSS to directly investigate the metabolic
processing of folic acid and other folates by the intestinal tract.
All subjects were in a program of follow-up monitoring and had
stable liver cirrhosis. The physical location of the TIPSS (Figure
1) allows safe blood sampling from the hepatic portal vein,
thereby providing a unique insight into the metabolic fate of
folates immediately after passing through mucosal cells.
To be eligible for the study, participants had to have stable,
synthetic liver function without recent evidence of decompensation
(defined as liver-function inadequacy or active complications of
portal hypertension), be abstinent from alcohol, be free from
malignant disease, have normal gut permeability as evidenced
by the recovery of urinary lactulose and mannitol after an oral
test dose in the reference range, and have a patent TIPSS on their
last surveillance. Participants who were receiving folic acid
supplementation or taking vitamin B supplements were excluded.
Six subjects who had undergone a TIPSS insertion at the
Freeman Hospital, Newcastle on Tyne, United Kingdom, between
1992 and 2009 provided written, informed consent to take
part in the study. All studies were conducted according to the
guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all
procedures involving human subjects were approved by the
Newcastle and North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
(08/H0906/82). The small sample size was a consequence of the
number of patients who were eligible in the hospital database
(n = 26). Of these subjects, 17 patients did not return their
expression of interest letter after one reminder. Of the other 9
subjects, one patients did not consent, one patient developed
severe cervical arthritis and could not lie flat, and one patient
had a neuropsychiatric illness during the screening phase.
The crossover study design allocated subjects with an in situ
TIPSS to randomly receive either a physiologic 500-nmol (220
mg folic acid equivalent) dose of 13C5-folic acid or 13C5-6S-5-
FormylTHF (Merck Eprova), with the label being carried by the
5 carbons of the glutamate moiety. Study days coincided with
the participant’s annual TIPSS surveillance checkup with
crossover dosing that occurred at the next annual checkup. After
an overnight fast, a routine TIPSS venogram was carried out by
experienced radiologists to confirm the patency of the TIPSS. A
catheter (65-cm 5Fr Beacon Tip Royal Flush Plus High Flow
Catheter; Cook Medical Europe Ltd) was placed in the portal
vein and flushed with 10 IU/mL heparin sodium solution
(Hepsal Wockhardt UK Ltd). The position of the portal catheter
was confirmed at the end of the procedure by using fluoroscopy.
A peripheral venous cannula was placed in a median cubital
fossa vein and flushed with a 0.9% sodium chloride solution.
Oral doses stored in a cold chain at 2208C were reconstitu