Vitamin A (retinol) and its active derivatives (retinoic acids) are essential for growth and development of the mammalian fetus. Maternally derived retinol must pass the placenta to reach the developing fetus. Despite its apparent importance, little is known concerning placental transfer and metabolism of retinol, and particularly of placental production and storage of retinyl esters. To elucidate this metabolic pathway, we incubated, in the presence of retinol, 1) human full-term placental explants and 2) primary cultures of major cells types contributing to placental function: trophoblasts and villous mesenchymal fibroblasts. We used HPLC to determine the types and concentrations of retinyl esters produced by these explants and cells. About 14% of total cellular retinol in placental explants was esterified. The most abundant esters were myristate and palmitate. Primary cell cultures showed that fibroblasts efficiently produced retinyl esters, but trophoblasts did not. In both types of experiments, no retinyl esters were detected in the culture medium, suggesting that retinyl esters were produced for storage purpose. These results suggest that villous mesenchymal fibroblasts are primary sites of retinol esterification and storage in the placenta. In addition to their essential roles in vision, growth, and maintenance of differentiated epithelia, vitamin A (retinol) and its active derivatives, the RAs, are required for normal mammalian reproduction and fetal development (1, 2). Maternal vitamin A deficiency can result in fetal death or in a spectrum of malformations, the fetal vitamin A deficiency syndrome (3-6). Excessive vitamin A intake can also produce a spectrum of congenital defects, in a dose-and developmental stagedependent manner (7,8). Because there is no de novo fetal synthesis of retinol, the developing mammalian embryo is dependent on the maternal circulation for its vitamin A intake. The presence of measurable hepatic vitamin A stored at birth is indicative of the functionality and importance of placental transport during pregnancy (9, 10). Abnormalities of placental transfer could have serious consequences on fetal development and integrity.Despite its apparent importance, little is known about placental transfer and metabolism of retinoids. This question has been approached in animal models (sheep, mouse, monkey), but the placental metabolism of retinoids is difficult to deduce from studies in the intact animal, and extrapolation of these results to humans is uncertain (11-13). Measurements of human placental, maternal, and cord retinoid concentrations have been reported, but they shed little light on the metabolic pathway (14,15). Experiments using human perfused placenta and full-term human placental tissues in vitro have yielded controversial results concerning retinoid metabolism, especially the ability of the placenta to produce and store retinyl esters from retinol (16,17).To better characterize retinoid metabolism, we have investigated placental capacity to esterify retinol into retinyl es...