Studies of vitamin A metabolism in mouse model systems

Over the past several years, discoveries from mouse genetics have had direc t impact on our understanding of vitamin A metabolism. Although the metabol ism of vitamin A in the mouse does have some special features (for example very large stores of liver and pulmonary retinyl esters), the ability to co nstruct knockout and transgenic mouse models has yielded an impressive amou nt of information directly relevant to understanding the general principles of vitamin A transport, storage and degradation. We discuss below the meta bolism of vitamin A through a number of genetically engineered mouse strain s with alterations in genes that affect this metabolism. The novelty of thi s experimental approach is evidenced by the fact that the oldest of these s trains was first reported only eight years ago.((1)) (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.