Night Blindness
Under normal circumstances, interorgan communication helps maintain homeostasis, but in pathological cases, it plays a role in the spread of illness. Night blindness is often a sign of a severe ocular illness that affects the retina’s health. However, it may also be caused by a rapidly increasing myopia or a lack of vitamin A.
Vitamin A deficiency may interfere with the body’s ability to make rhodopsin, the pigment required for night vision. This deficiency develops in 33 percent of individuals with cirrhosis due to the malabsorption of fat-soluble vitamins. The body uses retinol more efficiently than any other type of vitamin A. All-trans-retinol in the retina is transformed, which then binds to opsin, a membrane-bound protein, to form rhodopsin in rod cells. In the dim light, phototransduction (absorption of light energy by photoreceptors in the retina) would not be possible without rhodopsin.
The malabsorption of nutrients caused by NAFLD is linked to vitamin A deficiency, which can cause night blindness. Hepatic cells store the bulk of the body’s vitamin A supply, mainly retinyl esters. The liver also produces bile, which aids in the efficient intestinal absorption of lipophilic nutrients like vitamin A. Finally, the liver produces proteins that distribute vitamin A, such as retinol, to the tissues.
