Preface
The necessity for intake of vitamins has been surmised throughout human history,
but empirical investigations into their physiological role and mode of action only
began about 150 years ago. By the 1940s, research had established that maternal
vitamin A deficiency (VAD) induces multiple malformations in the embryo, and in
the 1980s, new findings suggested that retinoic acid, one of the major active
metabolites of vitamin A, was the natural morphogen regulating vertebrate development. Subsequently, the results of thousands of experiments carried out in
countless laboratories all over the world established that both vitamin A and retinoic acid are involved in some way with every process and tissue system that
supports vertebrate life, and that they exert their effects through numerous mechanisms of action that span from selectively regulating gene transcription networks
to regulating an animal’s metabolic state.
This, the third volume of a multivolume book series that Springer has invited us
to produce to synthesize the plethora of findings highlighting retinoid action, is
focused on vitamin A–retinoic acid action in development and regeneration. The
first volume in this series was published in 2014. It covered topics related to the
structure and biochemistry of nuclear retinoic acid receptors, their interactions with
retinoic acid, and their role as transcription factors as well as signaling moieties in
the cytoplasm, regulating the expression of target genes and intermediates involved
in cell growth, differentiation, development, and organogenesis. The second volume
was published in 2016. It covered topics on vitamin A uptake, transport, and
storage, the enzymatic conversion of vitamin A into retinoic acid, the formation and
regeneration of the retinaldehyde chromophore that facilitates vision, and processes
where vitamin A is active as a molecule in its own right.
The salient contribution of this volume is that it updates and synthesizes
information on topics related to development and regeneration that have received
relatively less attention in the primary literature. In particular, it describes hot
subjects that have major and growing impacts on society, such as the mechanism of
maternal–fetal transfer of vitamin A and the consequences of alcohol intake on
retinoic acid signaling and mammalian embryonic development. The reader is
referred to outside sources for reviews of topics that are not covered here, but that
v
The necessity for intake of vitamins has been surmised throughout human history,
but empirical investigations into their physiological role and mode of action only
began about 150 years ago. By the 1940s, research had established that maternal
vitamin A deficiency (VAD) induces multiple malformations in the embryo, and in
the 1980s, new findings suggested that retinoic acid, one of the major active
metabolites of vitamin A, was the natural morphogen regulating vertebrate development. Subsequently, the results of thousands of experiments carried out in
countless laboratories all over the world established that both vitamin A and retinoic acid are involved in some way with every process and tissue system that
supports vertebrate life, and that they exert their effects through numerous mechanisms of action that span from selectively regulating gene transcription networks
to regulating an animal’s metabolic state.
This, the third volume of a multivolume book series that Springer has invited us
to produce to synthesize the plethora of findings highlighting retinoid action, is
focused on vitamin A–retinoic acid action in development and regeneration. The
first volume in this series was published in 2014. It covered topics related to the
structure and biochemistry of nuclear retinoic acid receptors, their interactions with
retinoic acid, and their role as transcription factors as well as signaling moieties in
the cytoplasm, regulating the expression of target genes and intermediates involved
in cell growth, differentiation, development, and organogenesis. The second volume
was published in 2016. It covered topics on vitamin A uptake, transport, and
storage, the enzymatic conversion of vitamin A into retinoic acid, the formation and
regeneration of the retinaldehyde chromophore that facilitates vision, and processes
where vitamin A is active as a molecule in its own right.
The salient contribution of this volume is that it updates and synthesizes
information on topics related to development and regeneration that have received
relatively less attention in the primary literature. In particular, it describes hot
subjects that have major and growing impacts on society, such as the mechanism of
maternal–fetal transfer of vitamin A and the consequences of alcohol intake on
retinoic acid signaling and mammalian embryonic development. The reader is
referred to outside sources for reviews of topics that are not covered here, but that
v