Chapter 1
How Dietary Deficiency Studies Have
Illuminated the Many Roles of Vitamin
A During Development and Postnatal
Life
Mary Ann Asson-Batres
Abstract Vitamin A deficiency studies have been carried out since the early 1900s.
Initially, these studies led to the identification of fat soluble A as a unique and essential
component of the diet of rodents, birds, and humans. Continuing work established that
vitamin A deficiency produces biochemical and physiological dysfunction in almost
every vertebrate organ system from conception to death. This chapter begins with a
review of representative historical and current studies that used the nutritional vitamin
A deficiency research model to gain an understanding of the many roles vitamin A
plays in prenatal and postnatal development and well-being. This is followed by a
discussion of recent studies that show specific effects of vitamin A deficiency on
prenatal development and postnatal maintenance of the olfactory epithelium, brain,
and heart. Vitamin A deficiency studies have helped define the necessity of vitamin
A for the health of all vertebrates, including farm animals, but the breadth of deficient
states and their individual effects on health have not been fully determined. Future
work is needed to develop tools to assess the complete vitamin A status of an organism
and to define the levels of vitamin A that optimally support molecular and systems
level processes during all ages and stages of life.
Keywords Vitamin A · Retinoic acid · Retinoids · Vitamin A deficiency ·
Development · Postnatal · Mammals · Birds · Amphibians · Cell differentiation ·
Cell proliferation · Olfactory · Neurons
Chapter covers representative dietary vitamin A deficiency studies in animals, including rats, mice,
quail and other vertebrates, with a synthesis of what these studies have revealed about vitamin A
action during embryogenesisembryogenesis and postnatal life.
M. A. Asson-Batres (B)
Maine Medical Center Research Institute, 81 Research Drive, Scarborough, Maine 04074, USA
e-mail: massonbatres@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. A. Asson-Batres and C. Rochette-Egly (eds.), The Biochemistry of Retinoid
Signaling III, Subcellular Biochemistry 95,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42282-0_1
1
How Dietary Deficiency Studies Have
Illuminated the Many Roles of Vitamin
A During Development and Postnatal
Life
Mary Ann Asson-Batres
Abstract Vitamin A deficiency studies have been carried out since the early 1900s.
Initially, these studies led to the identification of fat soluble A as a unique and essential
component of the diet of rodents, birds, and humans. Continuing work established that
vitamin A deficiency produces biochemical and physiological dysfunction in almost
every vertebrate organ system from conception to death. This chapter begins with a
review of representative historical and current studies that used the nutritional vitamin
A deficiency research model to gain an understanding of the many roles vitamin A
plays in prenatal and postnatal development and well-being. This is followed by a
discussion of recent studies that show specific effects of vitamin A deficiency on
prenatal development and postnatal maintenance of the olfactory epithelium, brain,
and heart. Vitamin A deficiency studies have helped define the necessity of vitamin
A for the health of all vertebrates, including farm animals, but the breadth of deficient
states and their individual effects on health have not been fully determined. Future
work is needed to develop tools to assess the complete vitamin A status of an organism
and to define the levels of vitamin A that optimally support molecular and systems
level processes during all ages and stages of life.
Keywords Vitamin A · Retinoic acid · Retinoids · Vitamin A deficiency ·
Development · Postnatal · Mammals · Birds · Amphibians · Cell differentiation ·
Cell proliferation · Olfactory · Neurons
Chapter covers representative dietary vitamin A deficiency studies in animals, including rats, mice,
quail and other vertebrates, with a synthesis of what these studies have revealed about vitamin A
action during embryogenesisembryogenesis and postnatal life.
M. A. Asson-Batres (B)
Maine Medical Center Research Institute, 81 Research Drive, Scarborough, Maine 04074, USA
e-mail: massonbatres@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. A. Asson-Batres and C. Rochette-Egly (eds.), The Biochemistry of Retinoid
Signaling III, Subcellular Biochemistry 95,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42282-0_1
1