Subcellular distribution of dietary beta-carotene in chick liver

Studies were conducted examining the subcellular distribution of beta-carotene (BC), alpha-tocopherol (E) and retinol (A) in livers of control and BC-fed male White Leghorn chicks. Chicks were fed Cornell B chick starter diet with or without the addition of 0.5 g BC/kg diet. A first study involved liver fractionation by differential centrifugation in 0.25 M sucrose followed by high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analyses of all fractions for quantitation of BC, E and A. A second study employed both intravenous injection of Triton WR-1339 four days prior to sacrifice and centrifugation in 1.0 M sucrose to separate mitochondria from lysosomes more efficiently. Fraction purity was assessed by marker enzyme analyses. Results showed that chick liver accumulated BC; BC-fed chicks had higher concentrations of BC in all fractions relative to controls, and the mitochondrial fraction contained the highest concentration of BC, followed by lysosomes, microsomes and nuclei, respectively. Plasma BC increased more than fivefold in BC-fed chicks. Dietary BC increased A and E levels in liver and in the mitochondrial and lysosomal fractions while the plasma E level was decreased. Plasma A changed little with BC feeding. While dietary BC had no effect on fatty acid composition of subcellular fractions, the increase in E resulted in a large increase in the molar ratio of E to polyunsaturated fatty acids. The incorporation of BC and increased amounts of E into cellular membranes presumably would result in increased resistance to peroxidative damage.