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 Sato, M. Articles by Lieber, C. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sato, M. Articles by Lieber, C. S.

Changes in Vitamin a Status after Acute Ethanol Administration in the Rat¹

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 the effect of acute ethanol administration on vitamin A and retinol-binding protein (RBP) status, male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 120–200 g were given an acute dose of ethanol (6 g/kg body weight, orally) or saline after a 15- to 18-hour fast. Hepatic vitamin A was decreased by 13% (P < 0.025) 24 hours after ethanol administration. Serum vitamin A was increased 6 hours after the ethanol dose (P < 0.005) with a 10-fold increase in retinyl ester concentration, whereas serum RBP was slightly decreased. Saline controls showed no changes. The increase in serum retinyl esters 6 hours after the ethanol dose was found in the lipoprotein fraction (density < 1.21). When lipoprotein removal from plasma was blocked by Triton WR-1339, ethanol administration further enhanced serum retinyl ester concentration. In rats previously given [¹⁴C]retinol, hepatic ¹⁴C-labeled vitamin A was decreased, whereas in the kidney and adipose tissue it was increased 24 hours after ethanol administration. Thus, an acute dose of ethanol increases serum vitamin A and decreases hepatic vitamin A, most likely because of increased release from the liver or decreased uptake by the liver of retinyl esters as part of the lipoproteins.

KEY WORDS: • retinyl esters • lipoprotein-bound vitamin A • retinol-binding protein

¹ This study was presented in part at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Atlanta, GA, April 1981 (Fed. Proc. 40, 764), and was supported by the Veterans Administration and grant #AA-03508 from the National Institute on Alcobol Abuse and Alcobolism.

² To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 23 December 1981.