Life Sciences Commons^™

Vitamin A Deficiency Causes Ovulation Abnormalities In Mice, Rebecca Ursin

DePaul Discoveries

Retinoic acid (RA) is an active metabolite of vitamin A (VA) and is involved in tissue organization, patterning, and growth. RA has been shown to regulate male reproduction, however information on its role in ovary development is limited. To investigate the functions of RA in the ovary, we examined its role in ovary development and ovulation using an in vivo dietary VA-deprivation animal model. Our preliminary results have shown that VA deficiency causes a variety of ovarian pathologies, including reduced numbers of total follicles and corpus lutea, formation of hemorrhagic and atretic follicles, and formation of bursa and follicular cysts. …