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Craig J. McClain, MD; Herman Baker, PhD; Gerald R. Onstad, MD

JAMA. 1982;247(22):3116-3117.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

BIOTIN deficiency in man has been extremely rare, presumably because this vitamin is ubiquitous in the diet and is also produced by the gut flora. Raw egg white contains a protein, avidin, which tightly binds biotin and renders it poorly absorbed. In 1942 Sydenstricker et al¹ induced biotin deficiency in adult volunteers by feeding them a diet to which 200 g of dehydrated egg white had been added. Symptoms of biotin deficiency were produced that reversed with daily injections of 75 to 300 µg of biotin. More recent reports have described infants with inborn errors in the metabolism of biotin-dependent enzymes and signs and symptoms of biotin deficiency.^2,3 One child with short-bowel syndrome has been described in which signs of biotin deficiency appeared in association with parenteral nutrition and antibiotic therapy, and these signs reversed with administration of 10 mg of biotin a day.⁴ These investigators presumed this . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Minneapolis (Dr McClain); the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, East Orange (Dr Baker); and the Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis (Dr Onstad).

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Gastroenterology Section (111D), Veterans Administration Medical Center, 54th Street and 48th Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55417 (Dr McClain).

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