Symposium Functional Metabolism of Vitamin A in Embryonic Development

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Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient throughout the life … both by lack and by excess of vitamin A and examines various. tenance. …

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Content
Symposium: Functional Metabolism of Vitamin A in
Embryonic Development
Introduction1
Maija H. Zile
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1224
Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient throughout the life The first article, ”Vitamin A and embryonic development:
cycle and is required for reproduction, embryonic and fetal an overview” (Zile 1998), reviews the abnormalities caused
development, vision, growth, differentiation and tissue main- both by lack and by excess of vitamin A and examines various
tenance. In the last two decades, much has been learned about experimental approaches used to gain insights into the funcvitamin
A function from cellular and molecular biology and tions of vitamin A during development. Examples are provided
from developmental research. It is now widely accepted that from studies with the ”ligand knockout” model, the vitamin
the majority of the effects of vitamin A can be explained by A-deficient quail embryo, in which it is possible to examine
the existence of complex signal transduction pathways that vitamin A-dependent developmental events as well as endoginvolve
retinoid receptors, binding proteins and bioactive vita- enous retinoid-regulated developmental genes.
min A metabolites that serve as physiological ligands for…