Vitamin A and vitamin E in human blood

Abstract

The work to be described in these communications followed earlier studies (Leitner & Moore, 1946;Leitner, Moore & Sharman, 1947), which were mainly concerned with the lowered blood vitamin A in certain diseases. For purposes of comparison it was desired to know the levels of vitamin A prevalent in normal subjects, and the advisability of obtaining more adequate information became apparent. It was known that the blood vitamin A varied widely in different normal individuals, and that men tended to have higher levels than women (Kimble, 1938-9), but knowledge was scanty on the influence of age or season of the year. Moreover, at the time of our earlier work, dietary restrictions, imposed during the Second World War, were still in force in this country. It was of interest, therefore, to study the effect on the blood vitamin A of the changes in the national food supplies which followed the gradual relaxation of controls.Specimens of blood were taken for a long period from numerous subjects, with the aim of collecting a mass of information large enough to counteract the disturbing effect on averages of the wide individual variations. Estimations of total carotenoids were made parallel with those of vitamin A. Vitamin E is known to be capable of intervening in the metabolism of vitamin A (Moore, 1939; Bacharach, 1940; Harris & Woodside, 194z), so our programme was extended to include estimations of vitamin E. The presentation of our results on vitamin E has, however, been assigned to a later communication (paper no. 2 of this series), and paper no. 3 will deal with observations on chronic hospital patients. E X P E R I M E N T A LCollection of specimens. Blood was collected by venepuncture from volunteers who came to one of us (2. A. L.) for medical examination. Some were young men in good health, who were examined for purposes of life insurance or for their fitness to do arduous work abroad. Most of the subjects, however, had some complaint, and were examined with a view to diagnosis and treatment.

Carotenoids and retinol: their possible importance in determining longevity of primate species.

“…3 for human and chimpanzee and indicate that no significant changes occur in either carotenoid or retinol serum concentration as a function of age. These results confirm other studies of human carotene and retinol levels as a function of age (38).…”

The sex ratio in gastric cancer and hypothetical considerations relative to aetiology

“…Probably many nutritional and metabolic characteristics would satisfy these conditions. For example, Leitner, Moore and Sharman, (1960) give data for the levels of vitamin A in serum which show that up to adolescence the levels are similar in males and females, at ages 30-39 years the average level in males is about twice that in females but at older ages the levels by sex are again approximately equal.…”

Inter-relationship between serum retinol and alpha-tocopherol levels in Dhaka University students

“…Serum vitamin E levels were found to increase gradually with age (Leitner er al., 1960;Desai and Lee, 1974;Chen et al, 1977). Further, data on micronutrients such as vitamins, particularly vitamins A and E, in normal free-living adults are limited in spite of the widespread deficiency of vitamin A in socio-economically deprived societies (Leitner et al, 1960;Comstock et al, 1987). promotes the absorption, storage and utilisation of vitamin A (Moore, 1940;Cawthorne et al, 1968).…”