Decreased Capacity for Vitamin A Storage in Hepatic Stellate Cells for Arctic Animals

Comparative Hepatology

Table 1 Total retinol concentration in liver and kidney from rats and arctic animals.

	Total retinol concentration^a
Species	Liver (nmol/g)	Kidney (nmol/g)	Kidney concentration as percent of liver concentration
Control rats (n = 3)^b	1106	9	0.81
Vitamin A-fed rats (n = 3)^b	16877	224	1.33
Arctic animals:
Polar bear (n = 3)	18279	102	0.56
Arctic fox (n = 8)	18641	1623	8.71
Bearded seal (n = 10)	4652	39	0.84

^a Total retinol content (i.e. the sum of retinol and retinyl esters) is presented as mean for rats and median for arctic animals. ^b These results have been published in a previous study [9].