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Mehdi Tafti, PhD; Norbert B. Ghyselinck, PhD

Arch Neurol. 2007;64(12):1706-1711.

Vitamin A is necessary for normal embryonic development, but its role in the adult brain is poorly understood. Vitamin A derivatives, retinoids, are involved in a complex signaling pathway that regulates gene expression and, in the central nervous system, controls neuronal differentiation and neural tube patterning. Although a major functional implication of retinoic signaling has been repeatedly suggested in synaptic plasticity, learning and memory, sleep, schizophrenia, depression, Parkinson disease, and Alzheimer disease, the targets and the underlying mechanisms in the adult brain remain elusive.

Author Affiliations: Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (Dr Tafti); and Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U596, Centre National del la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 7104, Université Louis Pasteur, Illkirch, France (Dr Ghyselinck).