Table 2.

Tissue retinol concentrations of wild type, heterozygous and homozygous BCMO-deficient mice. Numbers represent mean ± SD from 4–5 animals/group. Baseline measurements were performed at 6 weeks of age and β-carotene diet was provided to mice for 4 and 7 weeks. Different superscript characters represent statistically significant changes after diet initiation within the same genotype (P<0.05). Differences among genotypes at each time point are depicted as different superscript numbers.

Tissue retinol (μg/g tissue)
	Male			Female
	Baseline	4 weeks	7 weeks	Baseline	4 weeks	7 weeks
Liver
WT	7.10 ± 1.7	18.04 ± 8.9	16.09 ± 10.8	9.53 ± 3.5	30.69 ± 14.6	28.18 ± 13.7
Het	10.42 ± 2.2	14.90 ± 5.2	16.68 ± 7.4	10.64 ± 0.7	15.95 ± 10.8	21.89 ± 11.0
KO	9.18 ± 5.4	20.87 ± 23.1	13.30 ± 5.5	10.46 ± 2.4	15.99 ± 9.3	17.52 ± 8.6
Lung
WT	3.46 ± 2.8	4.55 ± 2.3	7.30 ± 6.3	3.25 ± 2.2a	4.49 ± 1.2a,b	15.23 ± 6.9c,1
Het	3.18 ± 3.0	4.69 ± 3.4	4.40 ± 0.9	5.43 ± 2.7	3.29 ± 1.2	8.16 ± 5.31,2
KO	4.90 ± 4.3	2.84 ± 0.3	6.28 ± 3.3	4.31 ± 1.6	4.59 ± 2.9	4.33 ± 1.32
Intestine
WT	2.10 ± 1.4	0.43 ± 0.2	0.53 ± 0.11	1.87 ± 0.8	0.36 ± 0.3	0.83 ± 1.2
Het	5.04 ± 2.1a	0.32 ± 0.1b	0.47 ± 0.1a,b,1,2	2.67 ± 2.2	0.10 ± 0.0	0.21 ± 0.2
KO	2.95 ± 1.9	0.20 ± 0.1	0.17 ± 0.13	4.80 ± 2.9a	0.12 ± 0.1b	0.03 ± 0.0b
Testis				Ovaries
WT		0.06 ± 0.0a	0.09 ± 0.0b	0.74 ± 0.3	0.77 ± 0.2	0.97 ± 0.3
Het		0.06 ± 0.0a	0.07 ± 0.0b	0.74 ± 0.1	0.64 ± 0.1	0.70 ± 0.2
KO		0.08 ± 0.0	0.07 ± 0.0	0.74 ± 0.2a	0.59 ± 0.1a,b	0.48 ± 0.0 b
Epididymal fat				Periuterine fat
WT	0.99 ± 0.2a	0.47 ± 0.1b	0.34 ± 0.1b,1	1.15 ± 0.1a	0.54 ± 0.1b	0.56 ± 0.4b
Het	0.88 ± 0.3a	0.40 ± 0.1b	0.30 ± 0.0b,1,2	0.93 ± 0.1a	0.48 ± 0.1b	0.31 ± 0.1c
KO	0.93 ± 0.3a	0.39 ± 0.1b	0.19 ± 0.0b,2	1.00 ± 0.1a	0.41 ± 0.1b	0.25 ± 0.1b
Retroperitoneal fat
WT	0.84 ± 0.1a	0.45 ± 0.1b	0.33 ± 0.1b,1	1.22	0.80 ± 0.1	0.95 ± 0.8
Het	0.89 ± 0.4a	0.6 ± 0.1a,b	0.27 ± 0.1b,2	0.80 ± 0.1a	0.67 ± 0.1a	0.23 ± 0.1b
KO	0.79 ± 0.1a	0.46 ± 0.0b	0.15 ± 0.0c,3	1.02 ± 0.2a	0.67 ± 0.0b	0.18 ± 0.0c
Inguinal fat
WT	0.78 ± 0.1a	0.55 ± 0.1b	0.31 ± 0.1c	0.81 ± 0.1a	0.49 ± 0.0b	0.45 ± 0.2b,1
Het	0.77 ± 0.3a	0.59 ± 0.1a	0.28 ± 0.1b	0.77 ± 0.1a	0.50 ± 0.0b	0.29 ± 0.1c,1,2
KO	0.67 ± 0.1a	0.45 ± 0.1b	0.20 ± 0.0c	0.93 ± 0.2a	0.46 ± 0.1b	0.13 ± 0.0c,2