Neonatal vitamin A but not retinoic acid administration increases intramuscular adipocyte number in sheep by promoting vascularization.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

This study investigated whether vitamin A (VA) administration during the neonatal stage could increase the number of intramuscular adipocytes in Hu sheep by promoting vascularity. A total of 56 newborn male Hu sheep were divided into four groups and received intramuscular injections of either 0, 7500 IU retinoic acid (RA), 7500 IU VA, or a combination of 7500 IU VA and 5 mg SU5416 (an angiogenic inhibitor), at 1, 7, 14, and 21 days of age. At 15 days of age, 6 sheep from each group were randomly selected and sacrificed for intramuscular adipogenic capacity analysis. The remaining 8 sheep in each group were raised until they were 8 months old. VA-treated sheep exhibited an increase in preadipocytes, elevated expression of adipogenic genes (CCAAT enhancer binding protein alpha [ CEBPA ] and CCAAT enhancer binding protein beta [ CEBPB ]) and angiogenic genes (vascular endothelial growth factor A [ VEGFA ]), and stromal vascular fraction cells in the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle with enhanced adipogenic capacity ( P ＜ 0.05). These effects were entirely negated by SU5416. Upon slaughter, VA increased final weight, carcass weight, and average daily gain ( P ＜ 0.05) but did not affect feed intake at 21 to 32 weeks ( P = 0.824). VA increased the number of intramuscular adipocytes in the LD and semitendinosus (ST) muscle ( P ＜ 0.05) without changing the adipocyte number of the omentum,

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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