Quantitative Aspects of the Urinary and Fecal Excretion of Radioactive Metabolites of Vitamin A in the Rat

Urinary and fecal excretion of radioactive metabolites has been followed for 8 days (12 days in one group) in groups of rats having different initial body stores of vitamin A and given a single oral dose of 11,12-3H-retinyl acetate in oil. During the collections animals were fed a vitamin A deficient diet except for one group which was given laboratory chow throughout. At the end of the collection period animals were killed for determination of liver, kidney, and plasma vitamin A and radioactivity. Specific activities were similar in the three tissues; total liver vitamin A contents ranged from undetectable to 7700 μg. Excretion of fecal and urinary radioactivity was high initially but fell to apparently stable levels by day 8. When the combined urinary and fecal excretion was expressed in terms of the liver vitamin A equivalent (ELV), there was a gradual increase in excretion rate with the logarithm of liver vitamin A up to 150–300 μg/g liver; thereafter the rate of excretion increased more rapidly with liver stores to the highest level studied, 500–550 μg/g. In the initial phase the ELV values were 4–10 μg/day, rising to 22–24 μg/day in the second phase. These studies suggest that (a) a portion of newly absorbed vitamin A is metabolized before mixing with general body pools and probably without greatly altering the metabolism of endogenous vitamin A, (b) after equilibration of body pools, urinary excretion of radioactivity should be a useful index in experimental studies of factors affecting vitamin A metabolism, and (c) chemical determination of urinary metabolites of vitamin A is a potential index of vitamin A nutritional status.