Vitamin A Nutrition in the Human Foetus: A Comparison of Sweden and Ethiopia

ABSTRACT. The accumulation of vitamin A during foetal development was investigated post mortem in foetuses and newborn infants of well-defined socio-economic groups of Swedish and Ethiopian women. The median vitamin A concentration in the liver was 37.0 μg/g in the Swedish foetuses (n=39) and 9.1 μg/g in the Ethiopian ones (n=49) (p<0.001). The liver vitamin A concentration in the Swedish foetuses increased exponentially during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. This trend was not evident in the Ethiopian material. The mean serum concentration of retinol-binding protein was only slightly lower in the healthy Ethiopian newborns (18.6 mg/l; n=70.) than in the Swedish newborns. This finding suggests that vitamin A is retained i the foetal circulation in preference to storage, much like the situation in a vitamin A deficiency state in the adult.