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Review
. 2016:2016:7393620.
doi: 10.1155/2016/7393620. Epub 2016 Oct 19.

Meeting the Vitamin A Requirement: The Efficacy and Importance of β-Carotene in Animal Species

Alice S Green  1 , Andrea J Fascetti  1
Affiliations
Review

Meeting the Vitamin A Requirement: The Efficacy and Importance of β-Carotene in Animal Species

Alice S Green et al. ScientificWorldJournal. 2016.

Abstract

Vitamin A is essential for life in all vertebrate animals. Vitamin A requirement can be met from dietary preformed vitamin A or provitamin A carotenoids, the most important of which is β-carotene. The metabolism of β-carotene, including its intestinal absorption, accumulation in tissues, and conversion to vitamin A, varies widely across animal species and determines the role that β-carotene plays in meeting vitamin A requirement. This review begins with a brief discussion of vitamin A, with an emphasis on species differences in metabolism. A more detailed discussion of β-carotene follows, with a focus on factors impacting bioavailability and its conversion to vitamin A. Finally, the literature on how animals utilize β-carotene is reviewed individually for several species and classes of animals. We conclude that β-carotene conversion to vitamin A is variable and dependent on a number of factors, which are important to consider in the formulation and assessment of diets. Omnivores and herbivores are more efficient at converting β-carotene to vitamin A than carnivores. Absorption and accumulation of β-carotene in tissues vary with species and are poorly understood. More comparative and mechanistic studies are required in this area to improve the understanding of β-carotene metabolism.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Simplified schematic of the major metabolic pathways of β-carotene and retinoids. BCO-1, β,β-carotene 15,15′-oxygenase; BCO-2, β,β-carotene 9,10′-oxygenase.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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