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Spatial Distribution of Retinol-Binding Protein and Retinyl Palmitate Hydrolase Activity in Normal and Vitamin A-Deficient Rat Liver¹

William S. Blaner^*, John Edgar Smith, Ralph B. Dell and DeWitt S. Goodman^*

^* Department of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY 10032 Nutrition Program, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16803-6591

A study was conducted to explore the spatial distribution within rat liver of two proteins importantly involved in retinoid metabolism in liver, namely, retinol-binding protein (RBP) and the enzyme retinyl palmitate hydrolase (RPH). The study was conducted with both vitamin A-sufficient (control) and vitamin A-deficient rats. Livers were carefully and reproducibly dissected into 11 sections each, and RBP levels and RPH activities were measured for each section homogenate. Both RBP and RPH activity displayed highly significant spatial heterogeneity in their distributions in liver. For control rats, the mean level of RBP was 39.0 µg/g wet weight, with a section-to-section variation of 14.5. For deficient rats, the corresponding RBP mean and variation values were 283 and 56 µg/g wet weight. For RPH, the mean level was 136 pmol free fatty acids (FFA) formed/(min · mg) with a section-to-section variation of 178. Both inspection of the data and analysis of variance indicated that this significant section-to-section variation (spatial heterogeneity) did not follow a consistent anatomic pattern from rat to rat. Thus, no one specific anatomic location in the liver was consistently high or low with regard to either RBP or RPH. Since the spatial distributions of both RBP and RPH activity did not follow a consistent anatomic pattern, it is not possible to obtain an accurate measure of the total liver levels for either parameter in a homogenate made from a small section. Finally, the patterns of distribution of RBP and RPH activity observed in the liver sections from both vitamin A-sufficient and deficient rats were not significantly correlated, either directly or inversely, as determined by chi-square analysis. Thus, RBP and RPH activity levels vary independently of each other in their heterogeneous anatomic distributions in rat liver.

KEY WORDS: • retinoid metabolism • retinol-binding protein • retinyl palmitate hydrolase • liver

¹ Supported in part by grant AM-05968 and by training grant HL 07343 from the National Institutes of Health and BRG Grant 07082-16 awarded by the Biomedical Research Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, NIH.

Manuscript received 14 January 1985. Revision accepted 8 April 1985.