Jc. Kraft et al., TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION, LOCALIZATION AND METABOLISM OF ALL-TRANS-RETINOL, DIDEHYDRORETINOL AND ALL-TRANS-RETINAL DURING XENOPUS DEVELOPMENT, Biochemical journal, 301, 1994, pp. 111-119
Recently, the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of the retino
id receptor ligands 9-cis-retinoic acid and all-trans-retinoic acid we
re described in Xenopus embryos during early development [Creech Kraft
, Schuh, Juchau and Kimelman (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., in
the press]. The present study demonstrates the presence and distributi
on of their likely precursors, all-trans-retinol, didehydroretinol, di
dehydroretinal and all-transretinal, as well as the occurrence of 4-ox
o metabolites, in Xenopus embryos. The temporal and spatial distributi
on patterns of all-trans-retinol, didehydroretinol and all-trans-retin
al did not coincide with that observed for 9-cis-retinoic acid but, in
certain regards, were similar to the patterns delineated for all-tran
s-retinoic acid and all-trans-retinoyl beta-glucuronide. Evidence is p
resented that 9-cis-retinoic acid can be synthesized from both all-tra
ns-retinoic acid and all-trans-retinol in Xenopus embryos, suggesting
that the difference between the distributions of 9-cis-retinoic acid a
nd the other retinoids may be caused by selective synthesis and/or pro
tein binding of the 9-cis isomer.