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Retinoic Acid Supplementation of a Vitamin A-Deficient Diet Inhibits Retinoid Loss from Hamster Liver and Serum Pools

Differentiation Control Section, Laboratory of Cellular Carcinogenesis and Tumor Promotion, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892

These studies were performed to follow a spectrum of relevant parameters in male Syrian golden hamsters fed either a vitamin A-deficient diet or the same diet supplemented with retinoic acid at 3 µg/g diet. Body weight and life span were not affected by the vitamin A-deficient diet until after 6–7 wk. Squamous metaplastic lesions of the Formalin-fixed tracheas were not generally observed in the hamsters fed the deficient diet until 6–7 wk, at which time blood retinol and liver retinyl palmitate levels had also decreased. Blood glucose levels remained normal (90 mg/dl) until about 7 wk but declined to about 40% of normal at 9 and 10 wk. Dietary retinoic acid supplementation of the vitamin-deficient diet (3 µg/g diet) inhibited the loss of retinol from blood and of retinyl palmitate from the liver so that these compounds were still present at 10 wk, but were not detectable in hamsters fed the vitamin A-deficient diet without retinoic acid.

KEY WORDS: • blood • liver • retinol • blood glucose • vitamin A depletion

Manuscript received 17 September 1987. Revision accepted 25 January 1988.