S

The Effects of Dietary Vitamin A on Planarian

RegenerationTomomi Shore, Shawn Cyran

Biomedicine Program, Academies@EnglewoodMarch 5, 2015

What is a planarian?

What is a planarian?

• Classified in the Platyhelminthes phylum or “flat worms”

• Carnivores• No anus and eats

using pharynx in middle of its body

• Has central nervous system

Flat worm with ability to regenerate

What is a planarian? Continued

• Sexually reproduce and asexually reproduce through division

• Hypotheses for regeneration:• Epimorphosis- neoblasts• Morphallaxis- morphogens give instructions• Polar Coordinate model- molecules act as “zip

code”

Retinoids (found in animals) and carotenoids (found in plants) are two subgroups of vitamin A group.

Retinoids provide immune, inflammatory, genetic, and reproductive benefits and are important to cell growth and embryonic development.

What are the benefits of vitamin A?

Retinol

Purpose/Hypothesis

 Since Vitamin A is essential to growth and maintenance of the body, we studied the effects of foods with varying amounts of vitamin A on Planarian regeneration.

We hypothesized that Planarians fed greater amounts of vitamin A would show greater regeneration compared to others fed less.

Vitamin A Retinoid Found in Foods

Food Vitamin A per 100g

Chicken Breast 50 IUEgg Yolk 1,442 IUBeef Liver 53,400 IUTurkey Liver 72,350 IU

We predicted that turkey liver would have the greatest growth while chicken breast would have the least because turkey liver has the most vitamin A, and chicken breast has the least.

Methods

Feed planarian

s designated food

one week before

amputation

Place (using

pipette) Planarian

on ice mount

for 40-80 seconds

Put Planaria

n on coffee

filter on petri

dish to surgicall

y amputat

e the head

Remove coffee filter, place graph paper under

petri dish

Before AfterHead

Body

Pictures

Results: Head Pieces Growth

Food Day 0 Day 1 Day 5 Day 6 Day 12Turkey Liver

0 0.158333333

1.433333333

1.65 1.93333333

Beef Liver

0 0.116666667

0.666666667

0.766666667

1.386666667

Egg Yolk

0 0 0.73333333

0.93333333

1.3333333

Chicken Breast

0 0.253333333

1 1.016666667

1.2

Food Day 0 Day 1 Day 5 Day 6Turkey Liver

0 0.116666667

1.916666667

2.3

Beef Liver

0 0.063333333

1.28333333

1.28333333

Egg Yolk 0 0.17333333

0.84 1.79

Chicken Breast

0 0.1 0.71666666

1.12

Results: Body Pieces Growth

Graphs: Heads Growth

Day 0 Day 1 Day 5 Day 6 Day 120

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Turkey LiverBeef LiverEgg YolkChicken Breast

Graphs: Bodies Growth

Day 0 Day 1 Day 5 Day 60

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Turkey LiverBeef LiverEgg YolkChicken Breast

Analysis

In both the heads and bodies, the turkey liver groups had the greatest total growth compared to the others.

In both the heads and bodies, the chicken breast groups had the least total growth compared to the others.

The beef liver had a greater total growth compared to the egg yolk in heads, but egg yolk was greater than beef liver in bodies. This slight variation shows that these amounts of vitamin A were not large enough to show any noticeable differences.

Conclusion

Results confirm hypothesis As we predicted, we found that the group of

Planarians fed turkey liver grew the most and the Planarians fed chicken breast grew the least.

Acknowledgements

Thank you Mr. Cyran!