ReviewNutrients2012
Retina, retinol, retinal and the natural history of vitamin A as a light sensor.
Review in Nutrients, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diet and ideal food pyramid to prevent or support the treatment of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and cataracts.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Could Vitamins Help in the Fight Against COVID-19?Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Effect of a Nutraceutical-Oriented Dietary Intervention on Serum Carotenoids and Antioxidant Vitamin Concentrations in Patients with Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Rethinking Vitamin A Deficiency: Its Causes, Ophthalmologic Presentation, and Management Gaps at a New England Tertiary Hospital.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Advances in RPGR gene therapy for X‑linked retinitis pigmentosa: From preclinical insights to clinical application (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Anti-DNA Damage Mechanisms and the Role of Carotenoids, Vitamin A, and Its Derivatives.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Vitamin A and Its Related Diseases.Food science & nutrition · 2025Review
- Comparative transcriptomic profiling of drug-metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters in rabbit ocular subtissues, liver, and duodenum.Drug metabolism and disposition: the biological fate of chemicals · 2025Article
- Advances and therapeutic opportunities in visual cycle modulation.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2025Review
- Carotenoid cleavage enzymes evolved convergently to generate the visual chromophore.Nature chemical biology · 2024Article
- ZebrafishFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- Mapping of the extracellular RBP4 ligand binding domain on the RBPR2 receptor for Vitamin A transport.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Effect of retinol and α-tocopherol supplementation on photoreceptor and retinal ganglion cell apoptosis in diabetic rats model.International journal of retina and vitreous · 2022Article
- Mice Lacking the Systemic Vitamin A Receptor RBPR2 Show Decreased Ocular Retinoids and Loss of Visual Function.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Retinal pigment epithelium 65 kDa protein (RPE65): An update.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2022Review
- Multilevel Analysis of the Nutritional and Health Status among Children and Adolescents in Eastern China.Nutrients · 2022Article
- The Role of Vitamin A in Retinal Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Article
- Polyphenols and Visual Health: Potential Effects on Degenerative Retinal Diseases.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Vitamin A Update: Forms, Sources, Kinetics, Detection, Function, Deficiency, Therapeutic Use and Toxicity.Nutrients · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Light is both the ultimate energy source for most organisms and a rich information source. Vitamin A-based chromophore was initially used in harvesting light energy, but has become the most widely used light sensor throughout evolution from unicellular to multicellular organisms. Vitamin A-based photoreceptor proteins are called opsins and have been used for billions of years for sensing light for vision or the equivalent of vision. All vitamin A-based light sensors for vision in the animal kingdom are G-protein coupled receptors, while those in unicellular organisms are light-gated channels. This first major switch in evolution was followed by two other major changes: the switch from bistable to monostable pigments for vision and the expansion of vitamin A's biological functions. Vitamin A's new functions such as regulating cell growth and differentiation from embryogenesis to adult are associated with increased toxicity with its random diffusion. In contrast to bistable pigments which can be regenerated by light, monostable pigments depend on complex enzymatic cycles for regeneration after every photoisomerization event. Here we discuss vitamin A functions and transport in the context of the natural history of vitamin A-based light sensors and propose that the expanding functions of vitamin A and the choice of monostable pigments are the likely evolutionary driving forces for precise, efficient, and sustained vitamin A transport.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.