Vitamin A, systemic T-cells, and the eye: Focus on degenerative retinal disease.

ABSTRACT: The first discovered vitamin, vitamin A, exists in a range of forms, primarily retinoids and provitamin carotenoids. The bioactive forms of vitamin A, retinol and retinoic acid, have many critical functions in body systems including the eye and immune system. Vitamin A deficiency is associated with dysfunctional immunity, and presents clinically as a characteristic ocular syndrome, xerophthalmia. The immune functions of vitamin A extend to the gut, where microbiome interactions and nutritional retinoids and carotenoids contribute to the balance of T cell differentiation, thereby determining immune status and contributing to inflammatory disease around the whole body. In the eye, degenerative conditions affecting the retina and uvea are influenced by vitamin A. Stargardt's disease (STGD1; M

SUBMITTER: Thirunavukarasu AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9339908 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature