Conflicting indicators of biotin status from a cross-sectional study of normal pregnancy.

Abstract

The apparent conflict in the indices of biotin status is not explained by this study but could be resolved by two alternate explanations: 1) Pregnancy caused an impairment of renal reclamation of biotin, BNB, and BSO leading to a paradoxical increase in biotin excretion 2) Pregnancy caused metabolic or renal effects that increased 3-HIA excretion nonspecifically; hence, the increased 3-HIA excretion did not reflect biotin deficiency. We speculate that some of the women studied were marginally biotin deficient and that renal wasting and accelerated breakdown of biotin contributed to the deficiency.