QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kamath, S. K. Articles by Arnrich, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kamath, S. K. Articles by Arnrich, L.

Dietary Protein and Utilization of Carotene or Retinyl Acetate in Rats^{1, 2, 3,}

Department of Food and Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50010

Interaction of dietary protein with different sources of vitamin A was examined. In the first experiment, the effect of time on the utilization of a fixed dose of carotene in young rats fed diets with 10, 20 or 40% protein was determined. As the protein level was raised from 10 to 20% of the diet, hepatic retinol increased significantly at each weekly interval in a 28-day experimental period; but a refeeding period exceeding 21 days was required before an enhancing effect of feeding 40 versus 20% protein could be demonstrated. The second experiment dealt with the utilization of adequate, moderately high and high levels of either carotene or retinyl acetate in the presence of varying amounts of protein. Usually, utilization of carotene, when evaluated by the combined hepatic and renal deposits, was linearly dependent on dietary protein. By the same criterion, protein had no effect on the utilization of the lowest level of retinyl acetate supplementation. In contrast, utilization of larger amounts of retinyl acetate was diminished in protein deficiency, but was unaffected by excessive protein intake.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin A • protein • liver

¹ Journal Paper no. J-7182, Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 1895.

² Supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (Grant no. AM-07713) and in part by Iowa State University and Ford Foundation funds.

³ Part of the work was presented at the meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April, 1970, Federation Proc. 29: 264 (abstr.), and at the meeting of the American Dietetic Association, Boston, Massachusetts, 1965.

⁴ Present Address: School of Associated Medical Science, University of Illínois Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Manuscript received 20 March 1972.