China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (10): 3652-3659.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.10.016

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research Progress of Vitamin A on Fat Deposition and Its Regulation in Beef Cattle

ZHANG Congcong1,2,3, ZHANG Xinxin1,2,3, GUO Siwei1,3, ZHANG Jiasu1,3, YIN Baozhen1,3, ZHANG Luomeng1,3, XIA Guangjun1,2,3   

  1. 1. Agricultural College of Yanbian University, Yanji 133002, China;
    2. College of Integration Science of Yanbian University, Yanji 133002, China;
    3. Engineering Research Center of North-East Cold Region Beef Cattle Science & Technology Innovation, Ministry of Education, Yanji 133002, China
  • Received:2021-02-22 Online:2021-10-20 Published:2021-09-30

Abstract: Vitamin A is a kind of fat-soluble vitamin, it's necessary for maintaining normal physiological function, biochemical metabolism and growth and development of beef cattle, it cannot be synthesized by the body and must be supplied by diet. Vitamin A not only affects the visual and skeletal development of beef cattle, but also plays an important role in the regulation of fat deposition and muscle marbling formation in beef cattle. The requirement of vitamin A is different at different physiological stages of beef cattle in production, vitamin A supplementation at the fetal and calf stages can enhance intramuscular adipocyte development and adipocyte proliferation and promote intramuscular fat deposition, and vitamin A restriction during the fattening period can improve intramuscular fat deposition and marbling grade in beef cattle. Marbling is closely related to the tenderness and flavor of beef, and is an important indicator to measure the quality of beef. Vitamin A promotes fat formation through retinol, retinaldehyde and retinoic acid in beef cattle, and can play important roles in each stage of adipogenesis, adipogenic differentiation and accumulation. The process of fat deposition is regulated by the transcription factors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), CCAAT-erbinding protein (C/EBPs) and Janus kinase-signal transduction and activation of transcription (JAK-STAT) signal transduction pathways. Epigenetically modified DNA methylation and demethylation can also be involved in adipocyte differentiation and adipose tissue growth and development by regulating the expression of related genes during adipogenesis, thus affecting fat deposition in beef cattle. This review focused on the definition of vitamin A, its biological function and the process of adipose tissue formation, and emphatically expounded the mechanism of vitamin A supplementation and feeding restriction in beef cattle at different physiological stages, which affected the regulation of fat deposition by adipogenesis-related signaling pathways through the expression levels of transcription factors and epigenetic modifications, in order to promote vitamin A to improve beef cattle quality and high-grade beef production and provide a reference.

Key words: vitamin A; fat deposition; regulation

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