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A New Vaginal Smear Assay for Vitamin A in Rats¹

Department of Biochemistry, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 420 Henry Mall, Madison, WI 53706

A method is described for measuring the relative activities of vitamin A active substances based on their direct effect on the cornified vaginal epithelium of vitamin A-deficient rats. The results obtained agree well with those found in the tracheal organ culture assay. The relative activities found for several test compounds were: all-trans-retinoyl-ß-glucuronide > all-trans-retinoic acid > all-trans retinol > all-trans-5,6-epoxyretinoic acid. The assay is simple and inexpensive to perform, and should find use in laboratories where the equipment and personnel required for the tracheal organ culture assay are not available.

KEY WORDS: • retinoic acid • retinol • 5,6-epoxyretinoic acid • retinoyl-ß-D-glucuronide • ovariectomy • vaginal cornification • rat

¹ This work was supported by Program Project Grant AM-14881 from the National institutes of Health. a training grant in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology and the Harry Steenbock Research Fund of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

² Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; no reprints of this article will be available from authors.

Manuscript received 18 February 1982.