Effects of chronic hypervitaminosis A on the reproductive organs of male and female rats

ABSTRACT

Vitamin A palmitate was injected in a relatively toxic dose of 16.4 mg or 30,000 IU every other day to an average 200 g male and female rats for 36 days. The estrous cycle stopped in diestrus after 21 days of treatment. Even though, the serum vitamin A of the treated animals was about 150 times of the controls, no obvious sign of vitamin A toxicity was observed. The seminal vesicles of the treated male rats were significantly small and empty of fluid while the testes showed necrotic cells in all layers except the spermatogoneal layer. The ovulation apparently was not affected in the vitamin A treated female rats since the ovaries showed various stages of follicular growth with corpora lutea, but the uteri were pale and showed no signs of activity and they gave the usual quiescent picture of diestrus stage