Retinol and retinyl palmitate in fetal mice liver: sexual dimorphism

We determined retinoids liver content in male and female mice fetuses to study a possible sex difference during prenatal development, and to ascertain if vitamin A metabolism is similar in both sexes. The study was performed between developmental days E15-E19, and the fetuses were collected from two main groups: control (no manipulation) and vitamin A (administration of vitamin A on developmental day E14). Each group was subdivided by sex and retinoids were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The control group did not have any retinol in the liver of both sexes. Fetuses from the vitamin A group began to accumulate retinol on day E16, until E19 and sexual dimorphism was exhibited. Retinyl palmitate content in the control group showed sexual dimorphism on some developmental days, and in the vitamin A group these differences were more significant. In conclusion, our study showed sexual dimorphism in the retinoids liver content during mice development and evidences a sex difference in vitamin A metabolism, with different capacities to store and metabolize retinoids.