Vitamin A Deficiency during the Perinatal Period and First Weeks of Life Modifies Vitamin A and Lipid Postprandial Metabolism in Both Female and Male Young Rats

Abstract

Scope The effect of vitamin A deficiency on vitamin A and lipid postprandial metabolism in young rats is addressed, considering the effect of sex. Methods and Results Sprague‐Dawley rats are fed either 400 UI.kg−1 vitamin A diet (vitamin A‐deficient (VAD) diet) or 2300 UI.kg−1 vitamin A (control diet), before being mated. Mothers receive the same VAD or control diet during gestation and lactation. Offspring receive the same diet than mothers until 8 weeks of age. VAD diet‐fed female and male offspring display a severe vitamin A deficiency with no body weight or glucose tolerance defects. Fasting plasma triglyceride concentrations are decreased in VAD diet‐fed animals compared to controls (p < 0.05). Retinyl ester postprandial responses after vitamin A gavage, expressed as area under the curves, are not different in VAD diet‐fed and control animals, although retinyl ester postprandial peak is significantly delayed (p < 0.05) in VAD diet‐fed rats. Lipids also accumulate in the distal part of the intestine after gavage and [1‐13C]‐oleate postprandial response is decreased in VAD diet‐fed males. Conclusion Vitamin A deficiency modulates both vitamin A absorption rate and lipid postprandial metabolism, which can partly explain the altered fasting lipid status observed in VAD diet‐fed offspring.

Integration of multiomics analysis to reveal the major pathways of vitamin A deficiency aggravates acute respiratory distress syndrome in neonatal rats

“…VAD and VA normal (VAN) neonatal rat model preparation: Two weeks before pregnancy, female rats were fed the VAN diet (2300 IU VA/kg, n = 20) and VAD diet (400 IU VA/kg, n = 20); male rats(n = 20) were fed a common conventional diet 8 . The two groups of female rats were mated in cages according to the ratio of female:male = 2:1 to obtain VAD neonatal rats and VAN neonatal rats 9 .…”