Cobalamin status is negatively correlated with vascular endothelial-cadherin in vegetarian and vegan women with vitamin B12 deficiency

Optimal vitamin B 12 status is important for vascular health. Vascular endothelial (VE) cad-herin is an adherent junction protein involved in the maintenance of a functional endothe-lium. We hypothesized that vitamin B 12 deficiency can negatively affect markers of vascular function, such as VE-cadherin. Within a human intervention study, we explored the possible association between cobalamin status (i.e., vitamin B 12 , holotranscobalamin, and homocys-teine) and VE-cadherin (as marker of vascular health) in vegetarians/vegans (VEG) with B 12 deficiency. The associations were evaluated at baseline and after 90-day supplementation with 2000 pg/wk of vitamin B 12 . On the whole, an inverse association between VE-cadherin and holotranscobalamin ( P = .014) and a positive association between VE-cadherin and ho-mocysteine ( P = .041) was documented at baseline. VEG women showed higher levels of VE-cadherin compared with VEG men ( P = .044), suggesting an increase in endothelial per-meability. The intervention with vitamin B 12 restored serum vitamin levels and improved the overall cobalamin status, whereas it did not affect VE-cadherin levels. The inverse asso-ciation between holotranscobalamin and VE-cadherin was also maintained after interven-tion in women, corroborating the strong correlation between these 2 parameters. The results obtained seem to suggest a possible association between cobalamin status and VE-cadherin even if the intervention with B 12 failed to positively affect VE-cadherin levels. Thus, further studies are needed to corroborate these findings and clarify the contribution of a vitamin B 12 intervention on VE-cadherin levels in this target population. This trial was registered at ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN75099618). (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.