The ability of cultivated human skin fibroblasts to store vitamin A. A contribution to the cytogenesis of the Ito cells of the liver.

Cultivated skin fibroblasts were fed with retinol palmitate in a dosage of 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 I.U. In dependence on the dosage a remarkable uptake and storage of vitamin A can be observed in vitro (27.2, 53.0 or 60.7% of the fibroblasts). Distinctly retinol palmitate storing cells have lost their typical fibroblast-like appearance and are transformed into cells which are comparable to the Ito cells of the liver from the cytomorphological point of view.