Effect of nutritional vitamin A deficiency on lipid metabolism in the rat heart: Its relation to PPAR gene expression.

Objective: We studied the effect of dietary vitamin A deprivation on lipid composition and mRNA expression of regulatory enzymes involved in rat heart energetic lipid metabolism and its relation to the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR) genes.

Methods: Male Wistar 21-d-old rats were fed for 3 mo with a vitamin A-free diet (vitamin A-deficient group) and the same diet plus 8 mg of retinol palmitate per kilogram of diet (control group). One group of deficient animals received the control diet 15 d before sacrifice (vitamin A-refed group).