Vitamin A Liver Reserves and Serum Markers of Vitamin A in US Adults at Time of Death

Minimal human data exist on actual liver vitamin A compared with blood biomarkers. One blood biomarker, the percent of total serum retinol (vitamin A) in the form of retinyl esters, has been suggested to diagnose hypervitaminosis A with cutoffs of 5% and 10%. In this study, investigators aim to compare total liver vitamin A reserves with the percent total serum retinol as retinyl esters to evaluate hypervitaminosis A using autopsy samples from US adults. Investigators also evaluate the sensitivity (the ability of the biomarker to correctly identify those with deficiency) and specificity (the ability of the biomarker to correctly identify those without deficiency) of serum retinol to determine vitamin A deficiency, variation of liver vitamin A concentration among lobes, and liver alpha retinyl ester concentrations, a cleavage product of alpha-carotene, a vitamin A precursor. To conduct the study, matched serum and liver samples were procured from 27 US adult cadavers (from donors age 49-101 years) and their vitamin A biomarkers were analyzed.