Retinyl ester concentrations in retroperitoneal and inguinal fat pads for wild type, heterozygous and homozygous BCMO1-deficient mice. The bar graphs provide mean ± SD for 4 animals/group. Baseline (0 weeks on diet) values are from 6 weeks-old mice. β-carotene diet (100 μg β-carotene/g diet) was provided for 4 or 7 weeks starting at 6 weeks-of-age. *, P<0.05; **, P<0.01. Black bar, wild type mice (WT); gray bar, heterozygous mice; white bar, BCMO1-deficient mice (KO).