Vitamin A2026-05

Vitamin A: Biological Functions and Implications for Muscle Health.

Chang Chen-Lu, Li Jia-Wen, Shen Zheng-Kai, Gao Wei — Nutrition reviews

Summary

This scientific review explores the lesser-known roles of vitamin A in supporting muscle health. Beyond its traditional functions in vision and immunity, vitamin A appears to be important for muscle growth, repair, and protection against damage. Understanding these new insights could lead to better ways to address muscle-related conditions.

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Key points

Vitamin A is known for vision and immunity, but new research highlights its role in muscle health.
It helps with muscle cell growth, repair, and protection from oxidative stress.
Understanding vitamin A's muscle functions could lead to new treatments for muscle diseases.
This paper is a review, summarizing existing scientific evidence on the topic.

What the study looked at

This review paper investigated the emerging understanding of how vitamin A, particularly its active form, contributes to the health and function of skeletal muscles, moving beyond its well-known roles in vision and immune support. As a scientific review, this paper didn't involve new experiments or human participants. Instead, the authors synthesized and analyzed findings from numerous existing studies to compile a comprehensive overview of vitamin A's biological mechanisms and implications for muscle health. The review found that vitamin A plays a crucial role in several aspects of muscle physiology, including the growth and specialization of muscle cells, the repair and regeneration of damaged muscle tissue, and the body's defense against cellular damage. These findings suggest vitamin A could be important for maintaining muscle strength and preventing muscle-related conditions.

Dietary takeaway

While this review highlights the potential importance of vitamin A for muscle health, it's crucial to remember that it summarizes existing research rather than presenting new findings. Ensuring adequate vitamin A intake through a balanced diet, including foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, and liver, supports overall health, including these newly recognized muscle functions. However, more research is needed to fully understand the specific dietary recommendations for muscle health, and no single study provides definitive answers.

Abstract

Skeletal muscle diseases represent a diverse group of conditions, often characterized by muscle weakness, atrophy, and functional impairment. These disorders continue to impose a significant burden on global health, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. As the prevalence of muscle-related diseases rises, it becomes increasingly important to understand the complex biological mechanisms that underlie these conditions to develop effective, targeted therapeutic strategies. Vitamin A, traditionally recognized for its vital roles in vision, immune function, skin health, and cell proliferation, has recently garnered attention for its potential involvement in skeletal muscle biology. Emerging evidence suggests that vitamin A, through its active metabolite all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), plays a crucial role in regulating various aspects of muscle physiology. This review aims to explore the intricate mechanisms by which vitamin A modulates skeletal muscle health, focusing on its impact on key processes such as muscle cell proliferation and differentiation, repair and regeneration, antioxidant defense mechanisms, and energy metabolism. Furthermore, we examine the potential therapeutic implications of vitamin A in treating various skeletal muscle diseases, providing new insights for both research and clinical treatment of these skeletal muscle diseases.

View on PubMed →DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuaf223