Innate immunity, gut integrity, and vitamin A in Gambian and Indian infants

Gut integrity, which can be measured by the urinary lactulose:mannitol excr etion test, deteriorates with the introduction of weaning foods. In The Gam bia, gut integrity measured monthly over 15 months in 119 infants (aged 2-1 5 months) was least impaired from April to June. This coincides with the ti me of year of maximum vitamin A (VA) intake-the mango season. Subsequently, two VA intervention studies were done in infants in India. Eighty infants attending a community health center received 16,700 IU weekly or placebo. I n another study, 94 hospitalized infants were given 200,000 IU VA or placeb o: 31 received VA on admission, while the rest (32 VA, 31 placebo) received treatment on discharge. All VA-treated groups had more rapid improvement i n gut integrity than the placebo groups, but no group had gut integrity nor malized by Western standards. The data suggest that VA status may influence gut integrity.