Drug resistance of pathogens has necessitated the identification of novel targets for antibiotics. Thiamin (vitamin B1) is an essential cofactor for all organisms in its active form thiamin diphosphate (ThDP). Therefore, its metabolic pathways might be one largely untapped source of antibiotics targets. This review describes bacterial thiamin biosynthetic, salvage, and transport pathways. Essen...

Changes in the thiamin contents in three types of porcine muscle and porcine liver during growth were investigated. The muscular thiamin content was lower at the newborn stage than at fetal stage, and increased after the weaning period. The liver thiamin content, however, remained unchanged from the fetal stage to 5 months old. The changes in thiamin contents were different between Landrace and...

The putative thiamin transporter ThiT from Lactococcus lactis was overproduced in the membrane of lactococcal cells. In vivo transport assays using radiolabeled thiamin demonstrated that ThiT indeed was involved in thiamin transport. The protein was solubilized from the membranes and purified in detergent solution. Size exclusion chromatography coupled to static light scattering, refractive ind...

Thiamin-responsive megaloblastic anemia syndrome (TRMA) is characterized by diabetes mellitus, megaloblastic anemia and sensorineural deafness. Mutations in the thiamin transporter gene SLC19A2 cause TRMA. To generate a mouse model of TRMA, we developed an Slc19a2 targeting construct using transposon-mediated mutagenesis and disrupted the gene through homologous recombination in embryonic stem ...

The role of thiamin in the catabolism of ethanol and acetaldehyde has been investigated. When thiamin and subsequently ethanol were administered orally to rabbits, the thiamin concentration in blood increased slightly during the first 3 h and then decreased gradually. After 12 h, it became lower than the value before thiamin administration. Finally, it reached the lowest value after 24 h and th...

Thiamin (vitamin B1) is an essential micronutrient needed as a cofactor for many central metabolic enzymes. Animals must have thiamin in their diet, whereas bacteria, fungi, and plants can biosynthesize it de novo from the condensation of a thiazole and a pyrimidine moiety. Although the routes to biosynthesize these two heterocycles are not conserved in different organisms, in all cases exogeno...

In vitro experiments were conducted to study the permeabil i ty to thiamin of sheep rumen wall in either direction. Isolated discs of rumen wall mucosa were used in incubation experiments over 3 hr, controlled by measurements of transmural potentials. In some experiments 14 C-labeled thiamin was used. At thiamin concentrations in the mucosal fluid ranging from .1 to 1.6/ag/ml no changes of the ...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Physical exercise promotes energy producing pathways requiring thiamin and riboflavin as a coenzyme. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of regular exercise training on urinary excretion of thiamin and riboflavin. MATERIALS/METHODS Fifty rats were randomly assigned to one of two groups: non-exercise training (NT, n = 25) and regular exercise training (ET, n = ...

Thiamin is essential for the normal function of the endocrine pancreas, but very little is known about uptake mechanism(s) and regulation by beta cells. We addressed these issues using mouse-derived pancreatic beta-TC-6 cells, and freshly isolated primary mouse and human pancreatic islets. Results showed that thiamin uptake by beta-TC-6 cells involves a pH (but not Na+)-dependent carrier-mediat...