Vitamin A storage in lungs during perinatal development in the rat

We examined the ontogeny of vitamin A storage in fetal and neonatal lungs during perinatal development in the rat. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to measure concentrations of vitamin A and its esters, retinyl palmitate and stearate, in various fetal and neonatal tissues at times ranging from gestational day 14 through 21, and from postnatal day 1 through 21. The data show that significant vitamin A storage occurs in the fetal lung during the latter one-third of prenatal life. Depletion of these stores that begins before birth and continues into the early postnatal period suggests that the developing lung may be dependent on these local vitamin A stores during active growth and differentiation. The utilization of vitamin A stores in the developing lung appears to be independent of the liver stores of vitamin A.