Vitamin A (retinol) is a necessary and important constituent of the body which is provided by food intake of retinyl esters and carotenoids. Vitamin A is known best for being important for vision, but in addition to the eye, vitamin A is necessary in numerous other organs in the body, including the skeleton. Vitamin A is converted to an active compound, all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), which is ...

1. Serum levels of retinol-binding protein (RBP), total vitamin A and retinyl ester were measured in twenty-four malnourished children with corneal lesions and nine normal children. 2. Initially, the RBP and vitamin A levels were significantly lower in malnourished children than in normal children. 3. After intramuscular injection of 30000 microgram of aqueous vitamin A, serum levels of total v...

We retrospectively studied seven children (six girls, one boy) aged from 7.5 to 25 months who presented to our institution after taking large doses of vitamin D (900 000-4 000 000 U) prescribed by medical practitioners for wrong indications like failure to thrive, etc. The clinical manifestations were constipation, decreased appetite, lethargy, polyuria, dehydration and failure to thrive. All p...

Disorders of calcium metabolism in childhood (except rickets) were regarded as uncommon until the recognition by Lightwood (1952) of the syndrome of 'idiopathic hypercalcaemia of infants with failure to thrive'. Previously there had been occasional reports of children considered to have AlbersSchonberg disease, hypervitaminosis D, primary hyperparathyroidism (Pratt, Geren and Neuhauser, 1947; P...

Disturbed calcium (Ca(2+)) homeostasis, which is implicit to the aging phenotype of klotho-deficient mice, has been attributed to altered vitamin D metabolism, but alternative possibilities exist. We hypothesized that failed tubular Ca(2+) absorption is primary, which causes increased urinary Ca(2+) excretion, leading to elevated 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1,25(OH)(2)D(3)] and its sequelae. He...