Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a member of the water-soluble B family of vitamins. As Kids Health notes, B vitamins are generally responsible for energy production and release. Each vitamin within this family also has an individual purpose and targets specific cells within your body. Vitamin B12 is one vitamin that your body can store but not produce, so you must get it from a natural source, in foods fortified with vitamin B12 or in supplement form to provide this essential vitamin to the cells in your body that require its assistance.
DNA
In some respects, every cell in your body needs vitamin B12. A report published in the Journal of Nutrition says this by stating that the role vitamin B12 plays in the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA, is significant. DNA, responsible for heredity, is in the nucleus or mitochondria of every cell in your body. When cells in your body divide, DNA replicates, or copies itself so the new cell is an exact match to the old. Vitamin B12 is an essential coenzyme in ribonucleotide reductase, a process that creates deoxyribonucleotides, necessary for DNA replication.
Red Blood Cells
Vitamin B12 is necessary for erythropoiesis, or the formation new red blood cells called erythrocytes, within the red bone marrow. Vitamin B12, along with folate and iron, allows for the synthesis of purine and thymidylate and facilitates DNA replication. Insufficient vitamin B12 levels prevent the formation of these new cells and result in a condition called anemia. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, long-term vitamin B12 anemia can cause nerve damage that displays as depression, confusion or dementia, problems with balance and tingling in your hands and feet.
Nerve Cells
Rather than being a component of the nerve cell itself, vitamin B12 functions in the maintenance of the myelin sheath, a covering that surrounds and protects nerve cells. B12 accomplishes this by assisting in the metabolism of fats into the fatty acids that make up 70 percent of the myelin sheath. According to the Vegetarian Society, long-term vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to irreversible nerve damage.
References
- Kids Health: Vitamins
- University of Illinois-McKinley Health Center: Vitamin B12: What Vegans Need to Know
- Journal of Nutrition: Vitamin B12 and DNA Biogenesis
- Genetics Home Reference: What is DNA
- National Academy of Sciences: The B12-dependent Ribonucleotide Reductase from the Archaebacterium Thermoplasma Acidophila: An Evolutionary Solution to the Ribonucleotide Reductase Conundrum
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