vitamin A supplementation of vitamin A-deficient populations may reduce anemia. The mechanism of these effects is unclear. In vitro and in animal models, vitamin A treatment increases the production of erythropoietin (EPO), a stimulant of erythropoiesis. OBJECTIVE: We measured the effect of vitamin A supplementation on hemoglobin, iron status, and circulating EPO concentrations in children with poor iron and vitamin A status. DESIGN: In a double-blind, randomized trial, Moroccan schoolchildren (n = 81) were given either vitamin A (200 000 IU) or placebo at baseline and at 5 mo. At baseline, 5 mo, and 10 mo, hemoglobin, indicators of iron and vitamin A status, and EPO were measured. RESULTS: At baseline, 54% of children were anemic; 77% had low vitamin A status. In the vitamin A group at 10 mo, serum retinol improved significantly compared with the control group (P < 0.02). Vitamin A treatment increased mean hemoglobin by 7 g\/L (P < 0.02) and reduced the prevalence of anemia from 54% to 38% (P < 0.01). Vitamin A treatment increased mean corpuscular volume (P < 0.001) and decreased serum transferrin receptor (P < 0.001), indicating improved iron-deficient erythropoiesis. Vitamin A decreased serum ferritin (P < 0.02), suggesting mobilization of hepatic iron stores. Calculated from the ratio of transferrin receptor to serum ferritin, overall body iron stores remained unchanged. In the vitamin A group at 10 mo, we observed an increase in EPO (P < 0.05) and a decrease in the slope of the regression line of log10(EPO) on hemoglobin (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In children deficient in vitamin A and iron, vitamin A supplementation mobilizes iron from existing stores to support increased erythropoiesis, an effect likely mediated by increases in circulating EPO\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial: Am J Clin Nutr Fecha: 01\/09\/2006 Zimmermann MB, Biebinger R, Rohner F, Dib A, Zeder C, Hurrell RF, Chaouki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":849,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}