Vitamin A

These studies were undertaken not only to evaluate the morphological change of topical vitamin A acid but also to compare the methodological difference in application, simple application and ODT, on mature mouse tail skin. All 18 animals were divided into 5 groups and serial biopsy was done after application of 0. 05% vitamine A achid and ointment base. I. 1 untreated control mouse. II. 2 mice treated with simple application of ointment base for 7 days. III. 3 mice treated with ODT of ointment base for 7 days. IV. 8 mice treated with sirnple application of 0. 05% vitamine A acid for 21 days. V. 4 mice treated with ODT of 0. 05% vitamin A acid for 7 days. The results are as follows: 1. Increase in epidermal thickness (60. 2 micron) was produced by simple applic- ation of 0. 05 % vitamin A acid for 21 days, but epidermal hypoplasia was noticert by ODT for 7 days. 2. Induction of granular layer was demonstrated by simple application of 0. 05 % vitamin A acid for 21 days. 3. There was a tendency of horny layer desquamation and epidermal darnage in application of vitamine A acid. Most severe desquamation and damage was produced by simple application of 0. 05% vitarnine A acid for 7 days. After that recovery was noticed in spite of continuous application for 21 days. 4. Epidermal hyperplasia, slight detachrnent of horny layer and epidermal damage were also produced by ODT of ointment base, probably due to nonspecific stimulation.
Animals ; Biopsy ; Hyperplasia ; Mice* ; Skin* ; Tail ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A* ; Vitamins*

A meta-analyze on vitamin A (VA) and anemia surveys in the year 1995 and 2000. The results showed that anemis is reducing during the recent years, particularly more in pregnancy women, and less in young infants. However anemis is still a public health significant problem (PHS). Clinical VA lesions are continuously lower than PHS. While the sub-clinical VA deficiency is still a PHS, of which majority is in mild and moderate levels. It was recognized that the problem is more severe in young infant < 6 months. Low VA content in breast-milk is more than 50% among lactating women. The recommendations, such as social marketing on the using iron tablet, iron fortification into several foods have been developed for control of anemia; VA capsule supplementation of 50,000 IU to the infant < 6 months combined with immunization of PDT on 6, 10, 14 weeks; Increasing doses of VA for women after delivery. Weekly supplementation of iron combined with low dose VA to pregnance women
Vitamin A ; Anemia ; Vitamin A Deficiency

Etretinate(Ro 10-9359), an aromatic analogue of vitamin A acid, has been known to be effective in the treatment of psoriasis, Darier's disease, pityriasis rubra pilaris, ichthyosis, and palmoplantar keratoderma when administered orally. In this experiment, we compared the therapeutic and side effects between a group with high dose therapy(initially 75mg of etretinate a day) and an another group with low dose therapy(initially 40mg of etretinate a day). We also observed whether the pretreatment followed by combined treatment with vitamin E could potentiate the therapeutic effect as well as reduce the side effects of oral etretinate. This experiment comprised 102 moderate to severe psoriatic patients. The following results were obtained from this experiment. 1. Fifty-six among 92 patients(61%) who were treated with etretinate for more than 4 weeks showed good to excellent therapeutic effect. 2 The high dose therapy was more effective, but showed more side effects than low dose therapy. 3 Vitamin E did not potentiate the effect of etretinate. In low dose therapy, the pretreatment followed by combined treatment with vitamin E showed a tendency to reduce the side effects of etretinate.
Acitretin* ; Darier Disease ; Etretinate* ; Humans ; Ichthyosis ; Keratoderma, Palmoplantar ; Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris ; Psoriasis* ; Tretinoin ; Vitamin E* ; Vitamins*

Glucocorticoids, dexamethasone, 6 alpha-methylprednisolone are routinely administered to brain tumor patients to reduce peritumoral edema before surgical removal of the tumor. In addition, the glucocorticoids can inhibit growth of several cell lines. Retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A is also known to inhibit growth of several cell lines. Sometimes inhibition of growth accompany morphological changes. In the present study, we compared the effects of dexamethasone, 6 alpha-methylprednisolone, and retinoic acid on the growth and on the morphology of a rat glioma cell line, C6. We found that all of them can maximally inhibit the growth of C6 by approximately 30%(p<0.0025) in the presence of 10 microM of either dexamethasone, 6 alpha-methylprednisolone or retinoic acid under our experimental conditions. However, only retinoic acid could induce the morphological changes of C6 at the concentrations over 1 microM concentration, which was elongation of the cells. The morphological changes were observed both at the subconfluent and confluent cell population. When mixture of 10 microM of dexamethasone and 10 microM of retinoic acid was added, no further increase in the inhibition of growth was observed compared with the inhibition obtained by adding 10 microM of dexamethasone only. The results suggest that the glucocorticoids might have effedts of growth inhibition of the glial tumor in vivo.
Animals ; Brain Neoplasms ; Cell Line* ; Dexamethasone* ; Edema ; Glioma* ; Glucocorticoids ; Humans ; Rats* ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A

Many modalities for the treatment of acne vulgaris have been introduced, but the results of the treatment were variable and unsatisfactory. In 1969, Kligman ct al reported that vitamin A acid was one of the mot effective raembers of the topical therapeutics for ance than any other topical remedies. But the undesirable side effects of vitamin A acid limit its use, and so we us instead of vitamin A acid for minimizing of possible side effects The results are as follows: 1. The total number of skin eruption progressively diminished after treatment with topical vitamin A acid derivatives and we found significant diminution on fourth week, and the effectiveness of the total patients was 73.7%. 2. The number of papules and closed comedories progressively diminished after treatment, but that of open corzelones slightly increased on first week of the treatment and diminished thereafter. 3. The number of pustules too few to evaluate with statistical analysis, but newly developed pustules noted speciaelly in first and second weeks wit.h unpredictable courses 4. The frequent, undesirable side effects were scale, buming & stinging and erythemas in order of frequeny, but other side effeccs auch as itching, tightness, pain, and pigmentation also noted in a few patients but the side effect.s were mild. So we considered the effectiveness of vitamin A acid derivatives were as good as those of vit,amin A acid, but the undesirable side effects of vitamin A acid. derivatives were less severe than those of vitamin A acirl.
Acne Vulgaris* ; Bites and Stings ; Erythema ; Humans ; Pigmentation ; Pruritus ; Skin ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A* ; Vitamins*

Confluent and reticulate papillomatosis is a rare but clinically distinct dermatosis first described by Gougerot and Carteaud in 1927. It consists of dark brown pigmented papules which coalesce to reticulate and confluent patches. It usually begins shortly after puberty mainly in females and is most often localized to the intermammary and interscapular regions. Histological examination shows hyperkeratosis and papillomatosis, and there may be decreased granular cell layer, focal acanthosis, or hypermelanosis of the basal cell layer. We recently observed a 20-year-old male patient who showed typical clinical and histopathological findings of confluent and reticuIate papillomatosis. Treatment with an aromatic analog of vitamin A acid(Ro 10-9359) resulted in dramatic effectivenese.
Adolescent ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation ; Male ; Papilloma* ; Puberty ; Skin Diseases ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A* ; Vitamins* ; Young Adult

The 10 cases of psoriasis were treated with topical application of 0.3% of Vitamin A acid ointment, once daily, without dressing, and were observed at weekly intervals. Histopathological studies were obtained 5 cases out of former 10 psoriasis patients, before and 3 weeks after treatment. Clinical results(table 1)revealed 6 cases of good result, 4 cases of moderate resuIt in efficacy. In generally, the scales and infiltration were more rapidly responded to the treatment than the erythemas. Histopathological findings after treatment (table 2) were revealed, compare with before treatment, reduced or absence of parakeratosis, regenration of granular cell layer, reduced acanthosis, and decreased inflammatory cell infiltration in the upper derms. Side reaetions, as irritation dermatitis, occurred only on the normaI skin especially periollicular regions, which was cured easily by wet dressing with Burow's solution for a few days. Recurrences were occurred in 3 cases of the treated 10 patients, within 10 days after stop of the therapy.
Bandages ; Dermatitis ; Erythema ; Humans ; Parakeratosis ; Psoriasis* ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A* ; Vitamins* ; Weights and Measures

Tretinoin(all-trans retinoic acid) is a metabolite of vitamin A and it is useful in the treatment of photoaging skin. Photoaging skin is characterized by wrinkles, mottled pigmentation, dry and rough skin, and loss of skin tone. Current use of topical tretinoin mainly acts on the epidermis, requires a long period to obtain the desired results and may cause skin hyperpigmentation. A combination of topical and injectable tretinoin has been used to reduce the treatment period as a result of its potentialized effect on the dermis when compared to graditional topical cream use. in this study, we observed histologic alterations in 5 white rabbits after using 0.05% topical tretinoin cream and 0.1% injectable tretinoin. Tretinoin was treated on the rabbits ears-group 1 and 2 on the right ear for study 1, and group A and B on the left ear for study 2. Study 1 was done to differentiate whether the dermal thickening is due to the simple physical stretching of dermis by intradermal injection, or whether it is duer to the histologic change by tretinoin. In group 1, saline was injected intradermally and in group 2, tretinoin was injected intradermally. Study 2 was done to compare the dermal thickening between the topical tretinoin cream treatment group (group A) and the combined topical and injectable tretinoin group (group B). Injection was done once a week immediately followed by 340nm blue light skin exposure. These treatment were done for 12 weeks. We harvested skin stripe from all group, group 1 and 2, and group A and B respectively, after 2, 6, and 12 weeks after treatment. Histologic differences were observed and measured. Dermal thickening was observed in group 2 and in group B(p<0.05). The results showed that intradermal injection of tretinoin mainly acts on the dermis and potentialtes the effect on photo-aging skin and fine wrinkles.
Dermis ; Ear ; Epidermis ; Hyperpigmentation ; Injections, Intradermal* ; Pigmentation ; Rabbits ; Skin ; Tretinoin* ; Vitamin A

Acute promyelocytic leukemia(APL) is a unique entity in the spectrum of acute myelogenous leukemia. It has several characteristic features, including distinctive morphology, chromosomal translocation, t(15:17), disseminated intravascular coagulation and effect on retinoic acid. Retinoic acid which is a derivative of vitamin A induces differentation of APL cells in vitro and in vivo, but its cessation induces relapse of APL. Arsenic trioxide(AszOz) can induce clinical remission in patients with APL, including those who have relapsed after retinonic acid treatment. We report a case of a 9-year-old male with APL who had relapsed after cessation of retinoic acid treatment. The patient successfully achieved remission following treatment with AsO. Arsenic trioxide treatment would be an effective and relatively safe drug in childhood APL patients refractory to retinoic acid.
Arsenic* ; Child ; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ; Humans ; Leukemia* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Male ; Recurrence ; Translocation, Genetic ; Tretinoin ; Vitamin A