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Vitamin A status involves eye health via two separate functions. Retinal is an essential factor in rod cells and cone cells in the retina responding to light exposure by sending nerve signals to the brain. An early sign of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness. [6]
Retinal was originally called retinene, [3] and was renamed [4] after it was discovered to be vitamin A aldehyde. [5] [6] Vertebrate animals ingest retinal directly from meat, or they produce retinal from carotenoids – either from α-carotene or β-carotene – both of which are carotenes. They also produce it from β-cryptoxanthin, a type of ...
Retinol, also called vitamin A 1, is a fat-soluble vitamin in the vitamin A family that is found in food and used as a dietary supplement. [3] Retinol or other forms of vitamin A are needed for vision, cellular development, maintenance of skin and mucous membranes, immune function and reproductive development. [3]
Vitamin A is necessary for proper functioning of the human eye. The photopigment rhodopsin found in human rod cells is composed of retinal, a form of vitamin A, bound to an opsin protein. [35] Upon the absorption of light rhodopsin was decomposed into retinal and opsin through bleaching. [35]
Vitamin A in food exists either as preformed retinol – an active form of vitamin A – found in animal liver, dairy and egg products, and some fortified foods, or as provitamin A carotenoids, which are plant pigments digested into vitamin A after consuming carotenoid-rich plant foods, typically in red, orange, or yellow colors. [28]
Assessing vitamin A status in persons with subtoxicity or toxicity is complicated because serum retinol concentrations are not sensitive indicators in this range of liver vitamin A reserves. [21] The range of serum retinol concentrations under normal conditions is 1–3 μmol/L and, because of homeostatic regulation, that range varies little ...