Hepatic Vitamin A Depletion in Alcoholic Liver Injury

SYMPTOMS of vitamin A deficiency, such as night blindness and hypogonadism, have been described in alcoholics, 1 , 2 but the relation between alcoholism, serum vitamin A, and hepatic vitamin A is not known. Previous studies of hepatic vitamin A levels in various disease states involved only autopsy material, did not include biopsy data, and did not specify whether the subjects studied were alcoholic. 3 4 5 There are some reports on patients with alcoholic cirrhosis who had evidence of a low circulating level of vitamin A, 2 , 6 7 8 but the actual hepatic vitamin A concentrations of these subjects have not been described. Therefore, we undertook a study . . .