Groups of 7-12 weanling Sprague-Dawley male rats were fed graded daily doses of vitamin A (5-176 micrograms retinol) for 7 or 12 weeks. Final mean liver concentrations of vitamin A, which ranged from 0.4 to 331 micrograms retinol per gram, depended both on the daily dose given and on the length of the feeding period. The mean serum retinol concentration was 24 micrograms/dl at the lowest liver vitamin A concentration, approached a plateau of 40 micrograms/dl at a liver concentration of 5-10 micrograms/g, and then very slowly increased with higher levels of vitamin A in the liver. Seven days after the oral administration of a standard dose (4.6 microCi) of 11,12-[3H2]retinyl acetate, during which period rats were fed the customary vitamin A-containing diet, bile was collected via bile duct cannulae for 1-4 hours, and then the livers and serum were extracted and analyzed. The key relationships defined were: 1) that the mean ratio of specific activities of retinol in serum to that in liver was 0.65 +/- 0.05 (SEM) (range: 0.46-0.81) at daily retinol intakes of 8-176 micrograms/day, 2) that the ratio did not vary systematically with vitamin A intake or liver reserves and 3) that the mean excretion rate of vitamin A metabolites in the bile was invariant at 0.28 microgram retinol metabolites per milliliter of bile up to a liver vitamin A concentration of 32 micrograms retinol per gram, but then increased rapidly by eightfold to a maximal rate of 2.4 micrograms retinol metabolites per milliliter of bile at a liver vitamin A value of 140 micrograms retinol per gram.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)