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Effects of Zinc and Vitamin A Deficient Diets on the Hepatic Mobilization and Urinary Excretion of Vitamin A in Rats^1,2,

Nutrition Program, Division of Biological Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

Weanling rats were fed diets deficinet in zinc (ZD), vitamin A (AD), or both (ZAD) for 3 weeks. Each then received 20 µg of 11.12-³H-retinyl acetate. Plasma retinol was monitored for radioactivity for 5 hours and urine for 6 days. Rats were killed and measurements made of plasma and liver vitamin A and plasma zinc. Plasma vitamin A was depressed but growth was not affected in AD rats compared to pari-fed controls. Radioactivity appeared most rapidly in the plasma retinol fractions of the two vitamin A-depleted groups (AD and ZAD) and was excreted most rapidly in the urine of these same groups. Zinc-deficient diets (ZD and ZAD) caused depressed plasma levels of zine and vitamin A and growth retardation greater than in pair-fed controls. However, zinc deficiency had no effect on mobilization of newly-ingested vitamin A or urinary excretion of labeled metabolites. Liver stores of vitamin A were lower for ZD rats than for controls. The data indicate that zinc deficiency is not a limiting factor in hepatic vitamin A release except as it influences growth and body demand for the vitamin. The data also suggest that newlyabsorbed vitamin A is mobilized and utilized in preference to that previously stored in the liver.

KEY WORDS: • zinc • vitamin A • mobilization • exeretion

¹ Supported in part by National Institutes of Health, Grant AM-16578.

² Presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Anahelm, California, 1976.

³ Present Address: Mend Johnson Research Center, Evansville. Indiana 47721.

⁴ To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 5 April 1976.