Inhibiting effects of hypervitaminosis A on development of fetal rat adrenal glands.

Administration of pregnant rats with excess amounts of vitamin A from the 8th to the 10th day of pregnancy induced destruction in fetal brain. On the last day of pregnancy, fetuses of treated mothers have smaller weight of adrenal glands as compared with intact fetuses. Maternal treatment with high amounts of vitamin A significantly reduced protein and nucleic acids levels and inhibited cell multiplication in fetal rat adrenal glands. Adrenal glands of fetuses from vitamin A treated mothers synthetized in vitro from 4-14C progesterone less amounts of radioactive 11-deoxycorticosterone, corticosterone, 18-hydroxy-11-deoxycorticosterone and aldosterone than adrenal glands of intact fetuses on the last day of intrauterine development. These results showed that maternal hypervitaminosis A depressed morphological and functional development of fetal rat adrenal glands on the last day of pregnancy.