 The above mechanism is separate from previously known types of maternal inheritance effects such as genomic imprinting, mitochondrial inheritance, or maternal oocyte mRNA transfer.The authors of the above study cite the potential of vitamin A supplementation in pregnant females who are known to carry an RBP4 mutation with retinyl ester which utilizes an RBP-independent pathway to deliver retinoids from the maternal intestines directly to the placenta and ultimately is uptaken by the fetus.The key would be to supplement during the first several months of life when the eye begins to develop, as supplementing later in pregnancy would be too late to avoid any potential MAC disease.