Vitamin A nutrition in the human foetus. A comparison of Sweden and Ethiopia.
The accumulation of vitamin A during foetal development was investigated post mortem in foetuses and newborn infants of well-defined socio-economic groups of Swedish and Ethiopian women. The median vitamin A concentration in the liver was 37.0 micrograms/g in the Swedish foetuses (n = 39) and 9.1 micrograms/g in the Ethiopian ones (n = 49) (p less than 0.001). The liver vitamin A concentration in the Swedish foetuses increased exponentially during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. This trend was not evident in the Ethiopian material. The mean serum concentration of retinol-binding protein was only slightly lower in the healthy Ethiopian newborns (18.6 mg/l; n = 70.) than in the Swedish newborns. This finding suggests that vitamin A is retained i the foetal circulation in preference to storage, much like the situation in a vitamin A deficiency state in the adult.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000032:analysis; D005313:Fetal Death; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008099:Liver / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D010920:Placenta / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000378:metabolism*
D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins; D014801:Vitamin A