Vitamin B deficiency results in severe oxidative stress, leading to memory retention impairment in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Oxidative stress is implicated in various human diseases and conditions, such as a neurodegeneration, which is the major symptom of vitamin B deficiency, although the underlying disease mechanisms associated with vitamin B deficiency are poorly understood. Vitamin B deficiency was found to significantly increase cellular HO and NO content in Caenorhabditis elegans and significantly decrease low molecular antioxidant [reduced glutathione (GSH) and L-ascorbic acid] levels and antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase and catalase) activities, indicating that vitamin B deficiency induces severe oxidative stress leading to oxidative damage of various cellular components in worms. An NaCl chemotaxis associative learning assay indicated that vitamin B deficiency did not affect learning ability but impaired memory retention ability, which decreased to approximately 58% of the control value.