EVALUATION OF SERUM AND TISSUE-LEVELS OF BETA-CAROTENE

Interest in beta carotene (BC) has increased as studies show that low dietary or serum BC is associated with increased risk of cancer. Patie nts with oral epithelial dysplasia had serum and oral mucosa punch bio psy samples taken before supplementation of 30 mg/day of beta-carotene and after 6 and 9 months of supplementation. BC was analyzed for 28 p atients by highperformance liquid chromatography. At baseline, serum B C and gender accounted for 48% of tissue BC variance: Tissue BC = -0.1 3 + 0.08(Serum BC) + 1.21(9ex) with sex as male = 0 or female = 1. Fol lowing supplementation, serum BC had an exponential relationship to ti ssue BC which accounted for 52% of tissue variance: Tissue BC = 1.15 5.7 x 10(-5)(Serum BC)(2) + 3.91(Sex). Women had higher mean concentr ations of serum and oral mucosal BC before and during supplementation. The need for oral mucosal sampling may be eliminated by the correlati on between serum and tissue BC. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.