Medications based on vitamin B12 could both prevent acute pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, but also limit its severity.
- Acute pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas.
- Researchers show that vitamin B12 helps prevent disease and its complications.
- In mice, it helped limit pancreatic damage and improve recovery.
It is an inflammation of the pancreas with serious consequences. Acute pancreatitis can cause significant complications, such as necrosis of part of the pancreas. Today, no specific treatment can prevent the disease or reduce its severity. Researchers at Sichuan University in China have found a potential drug. In the magazine MedCommthey demonstrate that vitamin B12 helps prevent and treat acute pancreatitis.
How to limit the complications of acute pancreatitis?
“Approximately 20% of patients develop moderate or severe acute pancreatitis, which is associated with extremely high rates of mortality and disability.note the authors. Even for those who recover, the illness is often followed by lingering complications, significantly affecting their quality of life.” For these different reasons, they point out that the development of treatments capable of preventing damage to the pancreas is essential. To explore the therapeutic potential of vitamin B12, they used scientific databases to carry out meta-analyses. “The analysis found that higher serum vitamin B12 levels were strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing different types of pancreatitis.note the authors.
Vitamin B12 can limit pancreatic damage
Secondly, they tested the vitamin on laboratory mice. “Two distinct models of pancreatitis were used in the study: one to observe early responses of pancreatic injury, and the other to follow the pathological progression of acute pancreatitis.specify the authors. This demonstrated that vitamin B12 protects cells from necrosis during the early stages of acute pancreatitis and subsequently reduces T cell infiltration.”Artificially increasing serum B12 levels before and after induction of pancreatitis not only reduced the severity of the condition but also promoted tissue repair after pancreatic injury.”they conclude.
Acute pancreatitis: the promising effects of vitamin B12
According to the observations of Chinese scientists, the protective effects of this vitamin result from a “improvement of cellular energy supply rather than regulation of oxidative stress”. “These results add to the growing evidence that vitamin B12 can reduce the severity of acute pancreatitis (…), thus providing new insights into potential therapeutic strategies for this disease, summarizes Professor Dr. Xianming Mo, lead author of this work. This study lays a solid foundation for future clinical applications of vitamin B12.”
