vitamin A tagged posts

People who have inadequate vitamin A in their diets are more susceptible to skin infection, yet how that vitamin affects skin immunity has been unclear. In a study published today, UT Southwestern researchers shed some light on that mystery by identifying a previously unknown bacteria-killing protein on the epidermis that requires the vitamin to work.

The researchers found that one protein in the resistin-like molecule (RELM) family – RELMα – acts as an antibiotic to rapidly kill...

High fat Diet + Vitamin A potentiation of Insulin resistance and body weight increase

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that the human body needs to function properly. But new research presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2017 in Chicago suggests that normal levels of vitamin A within a high-fat diet can negatively affect expression of liver genes associated with glucose and fat metabolism.

Researchers fed 2 groups of rats a high-fat diet for 8 weeks. One group consumed normal amounts of vitamin A (“sufficient”), while the other group ate food that lacked the nutrient (“deficient”). The research team measured the rats’ body mass (an indicator of concentration of body fat) each week...