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Hepatic Vitamin a Depletion after Chronic Ethanol Consumption in Baboons and Rats¹

Laboratory of Liver Disease and Nutrition and Alcohol Research and Treatment Center, Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine (CUNY), New York, NY 10468

To evaluate possible effects of alcohol consumption on vitamin A and retinol-binding protein (RBP) status, baboons were pair-fed a nutritionally adequate liquid diet containing 50% of total calories either as ethanol or isocaloric carbohydrate. Fatty liver developed after 4 months of ethanol feeding with a 59% decrease (P < 0.001) in hepatic vitamin A levels, and fibrosis or cirrhosis developed after 24–84 months with a 95% decrease (P < 0.001). Similarly, hepatic vitamin A levels of rats fed ethanol (36% of total calories) were decreased after 3 weeks (42%, P < 0.001) and continued to decrease up to 9 weeks. In contrast, vitamin A contents in the kidney and testis were increased 2–3 fold in ethanol-fed rats after 9 weeks. Serum vitamin A and RBP levels were not significantly changed in rats. When dietary vitamin A was increased 5-fold, hepatic vitamin A was again decreased in ethanol-fed rats. When dietary vitamin A was virtually eliminated, the depletion rate of vitamin A from endogenous hepatic storage was 2.5 times faster in ethanol-fed rats than in controls. It is concluded that chronic ethanol consumption decreases hepatic vitamin A, and that some mechanisms other than malnutrition and malabsorption may be involved in this process.

KEY WORDS: • ethanol • vitamin A • retinol-binding protein

¹ This study was presented in part at the 1980 meeting of the International Association for the Study of the Liver, Chicago, IL (Gastroenterology 79, p. 1123, 1980) and was supported by the Medical Research Service of the Veterans Administration and grants from NIAAA.

² To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 9 March 1981.