Vitamin A implicated in the development of alcoholic liver disease

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/foas-vai090115.php

Public Release: 1-Sep-2015
Vitamin A implicated in the development of alcoholic liver disease
New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that the future development of novel treatments for alcoholic liver disease may focus on counteracting alcohol's effect on vitamin A levels in the liver
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

With a name like "Alcoholic Liver Disease," you may not think about vitamin A as being part of the problem. That's exactly what scientists have shown, however, in a new research report appearing in the September 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal. In particular, they found that chronic alcohol consumption has a dramatic effect on the way the body handles vitamin A. Long-term drinking lowers vitamin A levels in the liver, which is the main site of alcohol breakdown and vitamin A storage, while raising vitamin A levels in many other tissues. This opens the doors for novel treatments of alcoholic liver disease that focus on counteracting alcohol's effect on vitamin A in the liver.

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"This research not only give us new insights into how chronic alcoholism affects vitamin A in the liver," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but it also sheds light on how our body processes vitamin A overall. This is particularly important since some people get too much vitamin A through 'supplements,' while others still do not get enough because of poor access to proper nutrition."