Influence of Hepatic Function on Metabolism of Vitamin A

On the Variations of the Plasma Vitamin a Level After the Administration of Large Doses of Vitamin a in Liver Disease 1

“…In 15 patients with compensated cirrhosis without jaundice, in whom the clinical study and histologic examination (wherever possible) failed to 6 24 reveal signs of acute hepatitis, the fasting vitamin A plasma level was relatively low, but the response to high vitamin A intake was almost normal. In contrast to this, in 18 patients with cirrhosis, in whom jaundice indicated a superimposed acute hepatitis, the fasting level and the response shown in the tolerance curve were much lower.…”

“…In cases of suspected liver damage, at least 3 of the following determinations were done, as described in more detail in a previous paper (6) Figure 1 shows the average heights of the tolerance curves, after ingestion of 75,000 I.U. vitamin A, in controls and in patients with abdominal conditions other than liver involvement.…”

Pathology of Vitamin A Deficiency and its Clinical Significance

“…Since Moore (1929) first demonstrated that rats fed on carotene stored vitamin A in the liver, it has been repeatedly shown that liver diseases may interfere with vitamin A metabolism, but keratomalacia (Thompson, 1894) and xerosis (Bloch, ~gzqa, b) were described much earlier in jaundiced children. In liver diseases not only does the absorption of vitamin A appear to be impaired (Breese & McCoord, 1940) but its release from the liver is disturbed also (Meyer, Steigman, Popper & Walter, 1943;Popper, Steigman, Meyer & Zevin, 1943 (Moore, 1931), the vitamin A level in the plasma in infective hepatitis is low in spite of adequate liver stores (Harris & Moore, 1947). In long-standing and extensive liver lesions, as in liver cirrhosis, not only the liver reserves (Wolf, 1932;Moore, 1937), but also the plasma vitamin A levels, are reduced (Haig & Patek, 1942).…”