Vitamin A derivative aids emphysema in rats - study

10:06 AM ET 06/01/97
WASHINGTON (Reuter)

A derivative of vitamin A reverses the effects of emphysema in laboratory rats, (U.S.) scientists reported Sunday.

The derivative, retinoic acid, combats the disease by working on the alveoli, the small air spaces in the lungs where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lungs and the bloodstream takes place, researchers said in the journal Nature Medicine.

Emphysema destroys alveoli, leading to shortness of breath, disability and eventual death.

Rats that were given a substance that produced emphysema-like changes in their lungs, and then were given the vitamin A derivative, ended with their lungs returning to normal, the scientists said.

Dr. Claude Lenfant of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, which supported the study, said this might lead to treatments for emphysema and other lung ailments.

However, he stressed that further research was needed and said there was ``absolutely no evidence'' that vitamin A supplements helped in treating lung disorders.

Emphysema currently affects some 2 million Americans, most of them longtime smokers over age 45, and accounts for 17,000 deaths in the United States each year and $2.5 billion in annual health care costs, according to the lung institute.

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