Active clinical trials for "Vitamin A Deficiency"

The project aims to evaluate the potential impact triple fortified rice grains, mixed into natural rice grains, can have on vitamin A status if fed to school children in Southern Thailand. Within a 60 day intervention study, changes in vitamin A status in young children fed the fortified rice compared to children consuming non-fortified rice will be assessed.

Vitamin A (VA) and vitamin E (VE) are fat-soluble vitamins and indispensable substances in life activities. VA plays an important role in visual function, normal formation and development of epithelial cells, development and growth of bones, immune function and reproductive health. VA is of great significancCe for the growth and development of embryonic cells, especially for the development of fetal vertebrae, spinal cord, limbs, heart, eyes and ears. The lack of maternal VA will lead to the stunted development of fetal organs and tissues, and even fetal developmental malformation. In addition, VA has a protective effect on neonatal lung maturation.VA deficiency can cause the decrease in the activity of enzymes needed to catalyze the formation of progesterone precursors in pregnant women, reduce the production of steroids in adrenal glands, gonads and placenta, and seriously affect the functions of multiple organs such as heart, liver and skeletal muscle in pregnant women. VE, also known as tocopherol, has non-enzymatic antioxidant function, and maintains the balance of REDOX reaction in vivo by efficiently removing free radicals generated by lipid peroxidation.VE can increase the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) in endothelial cells and improve vascular endothelial function. Long-term administration of VE can improve the impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatory function in patients.VE can promote sex hormone secretion, improve fertility and prevent abortion. Pregnancy women the body's metabolism, increases produce free radicals, lipid peroxidation, low levels of VE will result in the accumulation of excess free radicals, cause the placenta aging, vascular endothelial damage, increase the risk of the occurrence of PHI and adverse outcome rate, as well as the membranes of cell membrane damage, increase the risk of premature rupture of membranes. Gestational hypertension is a group of diseases with both pregnancy and elevated blood pressure, and is the main cause of increased maternal and perinatal mortality, mainly including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia PE, and eclampsia, as well as chronic hypertension with preeclampsia and chronic hypertension with pregnancy. The cause of PE is unknown, but studies have found that it may be related to insufficient recast of spiral uterine arterioles, excessive activation of inflammatory immune system, damage of vascular endothelial cells, genetic factors, nutritional deficiency and insulin resistance. Recent studies have found that free radical oxidative damage may also be one of the main reasons for the occurrence and development of PE. PE occurs, the placenta bed vasospasm, ischemia, angiogenesis blocking and endothelial atherosclerotic changes, local immune cell activity, make produce free radicals increases, interfere with the vascular endothelial cell function, reduce vascular relaxation material synthesis, and shrink blood vessels increase material synthesis, promote vascular spasm, platelet condensed state is changed, thus appeared a series of PE. Previous studies have shown that oxygen free radicals and lipid peroxides are increased in PHI patients, while the levels of VA and VE are closely related to the antioxidant capacity of the body, and their lack can lead to the imbalance of the homeostasis of redox reaction in multi-tissue cells in the body. Since both VA and VE belong to fat-soluble vitamins and are widely distributed in daily food, whether their effects on the occurrence and development of PE are independent or combined will be a question for us to explore. Therefore, this study intends to evaluate the correlation between VA, VE and VA+VE and PE occurrence through multi-center clinical studies, and explore and summarize the feasibility of VA and VE in PE adjuvant treatment.

Women of reproductive age had their vitamin A stores estimated by retinol isotope dilution and then were given vitamin A supplements near the US vitamin A RDA or placebo for 42(USA) or 60 (Indonesia) days, after which retinol isotope dilution was repeated and the change in vitamin A stores was determined in each group to estimate how much vitamin A is needed to maintain nutrient balance in these women.

Since no quantitative information currently exists on how effectively the pro-vitamin A carotenoid (pVAC) β-cryptoxanthin (βCX) is converted to vitamin A (VA) in humans, this proof of principle study aims to compare the efficacy of both βCX and β-carotene (βC) to yield VA from biofortified maize. This data is critical before the breeding strategy for biofortified maize is directed towards high βCX-containing varieties in order to reduce VA deficiency in low-income countries.

Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) significantly reduces all-cause mortality when given after 6 months of age, but has a null or detrimental effect when given between 1-5 months. Studies of neonatal VAS (NNVAS) have produced conflicting findings. These age-pattern variations might result from immunological interactions between VAS and vaccines. The potential efficacy of NNVAS is being retested in 3 large new intervention trials with mortality as endpoint. Complementary mechanistic studies in animals and in human infants in The Gambia (this proposal) and Bangladesh have been commissioned to run in parallel. The investigators will use a 2-arm double blind RCT to test whether NNVAS modulates the early ontogeny of human immune development. Neonates, recruited through a peri-urban clinic in The Gambia, will receive either 50,000 International Units (IU) VAS orally within 48 hours of birth (intervention group, n=100) or a placebo (control group, n=100). Male and female neonates will be randomized separately at enrolment for later analyses by sex. All infants will be followed up from birth to age 1 year. A broad panel of immunological outcomes will examine whether NNVAS: a). normalises thymic development (thymic index by ultrasound); b). skews mycobacterial and recall antigen responses towards a Th2 profile; c). diminishes Th1 and Th17 reactivity to mycobacterial and recall antigens; d). diminishes the tuberculin skin test (TST) response; e). causes increased innate immune reactivity; f). increases the frequency of circulating regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing gut homing receptors; g). enhances B cell immune responses after routine vaccination (increase of B cell numbers and activation status); h). increases circulating IgA in mucosal immune compartment, especially oral polio vaccine (OPV) specific IgA post-vaccination; i). decreases bacterial translocation, by improving mucosal barrier function; and j). decreases markers of infection or inflammation. Growth and morbidity will also be assessed.

The overall hypotheses is that a product designed with optimized nutritional characteristics, based on consumer preferences and leveraging local nutrient dense ingredients, can successfully deliver nutrition through sustainable market-driven approaches. The objectives of this study were 1) to assess the nutritional adequacy of urban Senegalese households with children and 2) to determine the market potential of a locally sourced and manufactured, blended fortified, cereal-based product for the improvement of micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 24-60 months. This study simulates a market study, the investigators will conduct a product launch, determine market potential based on sales, evaluate marketing strategy to increase market share, and model the nutritional contribution of FtFF/traditionally fortified product for iron, zinc, and vitamin A. The investigators expect to provide a thorough evaluation of a business-driven strategy (for profit, social enterprise) as a sustainable tool to decrease micronutrient deficiencies.

Minimal human data exist on actual liver vitamin A compared with blood biomarkers. One blood biomarker, the percent of total serum retinol (vitamin A) in the form of retinyl esters, has been suggested to diagnose hypervitaminosis A with cutoffs of 5% and 10%. In this study, investigators aim to compare total liver vitamin A reserves with the percent total serum retinol as retinyl esters to evaluate hypervitaminosis A using autopsy samples from US adults. Investigators also evaluate the sensitivity (the ability of the biomarker to correctly identify those with deficiency) and specificity (the ability of the biomarker to correctly identify those without deficiency) of serum retinol to determine vitamin A deficiency, variation of liver vitamin A concentration among lobes, and liver alpha retinyl ester concentrations, a cleavage product of alpha-carotene, a vitamin A precursor. To conduct the study, matched serum and liver samples were procured from 27 US adult cadavers (from donors age 49-101 years) and their vitamin A biomarkers were analyzed.

The primary hypothesis is that introduction of food-to-food fortified products through a rural Hub-and-Spoke incubator system contributes to an improved food environment and availability of micronutrients to these communities. A secondary hypothesis is that the influence of the rural Spokes can serve to enhance rural food environments through creation of secondary rural spokes that disseminate improved food-to-food fortified products. The overall hypothesis is that a product designed with optimized nutritional characteristics, based on consumer preferences and leveraging local nutrient dense ingredients, can successfully deliver nutrition through sustainable market-driven approaches.

The overall objective is to determine the impact of EED on zinc absorption and homeostasis, and its impact on the absorptive capacity of vitamin A absorption of young children (18-24 months of age) in an austere setting with high rates of diarrhea, stunting, and micro-nutrient deficiencies.

Vitamin A deficiency remains a major public health problem in developing country worldwide. Young Children are considered to be at greatest risk of deficiency. However, there is little information on the vitamin A requirement of Chinese children. In the present study, about 400 children aged between 4 and 9 years old in a kindergarten and an elementary school of Shiyan City were screened before admission by questionnaire and anthropometric measurement. The vitamin A status of children was assessed by serum vitamin A level, relative dosage reaction and stable-isotope dilution technique. At the same time, their dietary vitamin A intakes were estimated by weighted-food dietary survey. The dietary vitamin A requirement in young children was determined on the basis of dietary vitamin A intakes in Children with adequate vitamin A level.