Priming with Retinoic Acid, an Active Metabolite of Vitamin A, Increases Vitamin A Uptake in the Small Intestine of Neonatal Rats

Given that combined vitamin A (VA) and retinoic acid (RA) supplementation stimulated the intestinal uptake of plasma retinyl esters in neonatal rats, we administrated an RA dose as a pretreatment before VA supplementation to investigate the distinct effect of RA on intestinal VA kinetics. On postnatal days (P) 2 and 3, half of the pups received an oral dose of RA (RA group), while the remaining received canola oil as the control (CN). On P4, after receiving an oral dose of 3H-labeled VA, pups were euthanized at selected times (n = 4–6/treatment/time) and intestine was collected. In both CN and RA groups, intestinal VA mass increased dramatically after VA supplementation; however, RA-pretreated pups had relatively higher VA levels from 10 h and accumulated 30% more VA over the 30-h study. Labeled VA rapidly peaked in the intestine of CN pups and then declined from 13 h, while a continuous increase was observed in the RA group, with a second peak at 10 h and nearly twice the accumulation of 3H-labeled VA compared to CN. Our findings indicate that RA pretreatment may stimulate the influx of supplemental VA into the intestine, and the increased VA accumulation suggests a potential VA storage capacity in neonatal intestine.