TABLE 2.

Retinol and retinyl ester concentrations of adrenal gland, kidney, lung, and spleen of adult pigs, piglets given different doses of VA, and reference piglets that died shortly after birth^1,2

Organ	Form of VA	Adult pig (Ref. 26)	Reference piglets	Treatment group (mg VA)3
				0	7.5	15	30
		nmol/g wet weight
Liver	Retinol	405.6 ± 368.3	10.8 ± 12.0	7.01 ± 2.85b	13.2 ± 6.44a,b	19.9 ± 13.7a,b	26.0 ± 22.1a
	RE	1016.34	23.6 ± 9.5	18.0 ± 6.63c	53.3 ± 16.9b	74.6 ± 30.7a,b	89.7 ± 49.8a
Lung	Retinol	0.230 ± 0.065	0.161 ± 0.047	0.144 ± 0.014	0.192 ± 0.047	0.168 ± 0.038	0.199 ± 0.061
	RE	0.2984	0.0102 ± 0.0114	0.011 ± 0.0043	0.0086 ± 0.0037	0.012 ± 0.005	0.016 ± 0.019
Kidney	Retinol	0.960 ± 0.577	0.824 ± 0.718	1.51 ± 0.280b	2.079 ± 0.246a	2.26 ± 0.341a	2.22 ± 0.393a
	RE	1.294	0.141 ± 0.052	0.185 ± 0.075b	0.233 ± 0.136a,b	0.318 ± 0.141a	0.281 ± 0.084a,b
Adrenal gland	Retinol	0.347 ± 0.065	0.515 ± 0.143	0.195 ± 0.037b	0.323 ± 0.111a	0.341 ± 0.055a	0.290 ± 0.049a,b
	RE	0.4364	0.367 ± 0.308	0.106 ± 0.079	0.121 ± 0.038	0.137 ± 0.078	0.111 ± 0.041
Spleen	Retinol	ND	0.209 ± 0.027	0.086 ± 0.024	0.092 ± 0.016	0.120 ± 0.014	0.108 ± 0.044
	RE	ND	0.057 ± 0.025	0.019 ± 0.0038	0.023 ± 0.013	0.032 ± 0.017	0.029 ± 0.013

¹Data are means ± SD, n = 12 (adult pigs) or 7 (piglets). Means for piglets in a row with superscripts without a common letter differ, P < 0.05.

²ND, Not determined; RE, retinyl esters.

³Molecular weight of retinol = 286 g/mol.

⁴Means for retinyl palmitate, oleate, and stearate were added together for total RE from reference 26 and therefore the SD could not be determined.