Specifications of Retinoic Acid

Description of Retinoic Acid

Tretinoin, also known as all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), is a medication used for the treatment of acne and acute promyelocytic leukemia. For acne, it is applied to the skin as a cream or ointment. For leukemia, it is taken by mouth for up to three months.

Tretinoin was patented in 1957 and approved for medical use in 1962. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, which lists the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. Tretinoin is available as a generic medication.

Applications of Retinoic Acid

• Retinoic acid (RA) has been used for the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into motor neurons.
• Used in personal care products to treat acne.
• It has been used for the differentiation of Xenopus ectoderm into the pancreas.
• It has also been used to study epigenetic regulation by RARα (retinoic acid receptor α).
• It has been used to study RA signaling of prospermatogonia transition into spermatogonia.

1. Recovery from paralysis in adult rats using embryonic stem cells. Deshpande DM et al. Annals of Neurology 60, 32-32, (2006)
2. In vitro pancreas formation from Xenopus ectoderm treated with activin and retinoic acid. Moriya N, et al. Development, Growth & Differentiation 42, 593-593, (2000)
3. Epigenetic regulation by RARa maintains ligand-independent transcriptional activity. Laursen KB et al. Nucleic Acids Research 40, 102-102, (2012)
4. Retinoic acid induces multiple hallmarks of the prospermatogonia-to-spermatogonia transition in the neonatal mouse. Busada JT et al. Biology of Reproduction 90, 64-64, (2014)