Abstract
Summary
Female rats maintained on retinoic acid and given a supplement of 1 μg of retinyl acetate during part of pregnancy delivered normal offspring that became vitamin A deficient in the first 2 weeks of life. If the rats were not supplemented with vitamin A, reversible crippling of the front legs occurred frequently in the second week of life. If retinoic acid supplementation was started a few days after birth, the rats developed normally but their growth would stop in 4 days whenever the supplement was removed from the diet. Growth resumed promptly when retinoic acid was again supplied.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.