Question: Why did you choose to look at vitamin A ???

Anna Ashton answered on 16 Mar 2015:

Hey,

Vitamin A is actually really important for lots of things in the brain. Once in the brain it gets converted to something called retinoic acid, which is a powerful molecule that can control genes and so can influence brain function that way.

I chose to look at it in pineal gland because people have found that before that it’s important for making melatonin, which is a hormone that’s made in the pineal gland during the night. They found that when there’s no vitamin A in the diet then less melatonin is made in the pineal gland. This means that vitamin A, or retinoic acid, might be important for making melatonin.

Melatonin is used for lots of things around the body, it helps you fall asleep at night and wake in the morning, and also helps the immune system work properly. Lower amounts of melatonin have been linked to diseases like diabetes and breast cancer. So it’s useful to know how it is controlled, and vitamin A might be important for that, so that’s why I’m studying it!

Thanks for the question 🙂