Tuesday, January 5, 2016
An article appearing in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology in 2015 reports the outcome of a study conducted at Japan's Shibaura Institute of Technology of an increase in cognitive dysfunction in vitamin E deficient mice. Animals that experienced long term deficiency exhibited an increase in brain lipid peroxidation, indicating that a continual lack of vitamin E, a well-known antioxidant, may accelerate brain oxidation.
"It is well known that the elevation of oxidative products in living tissues accelerates the risk of the development and progression of serious diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders, liver disease, and heart disease," write authors Koji Fukui and colleagues. "In order to prevent the risk of the development or progression of free radical diseases in the senescence process, it is necessary to attenuate reactive oxygen species production or oxidative damage . . . Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), which is a natural lipophilic vitamin, possesses a powerful antioxidant function."
The study included mice given a vitamin E-deficient or standard diet beginning at one month of age and continuing until the age of three or six months, followed by cognitive testing. Lipid peroxidation was measured in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and hippocampus, and serum cholesterol levels were assessed.
Deficient animals in both age groups showed impairments in cognitive function compared to mice that received a standard diet. They also had higher serum cholesterol levels in comparison with their age-matched controls. While brain lipid peroxidation was similar between deficient and nondeficient three-month-old mice, six-month-old deficient mice exhibited a greater amount of peroxidation in the cortex and cerebellum in comparison with nondeficient mice of the same age, indicating a significant effect in association with long-term deficiency.
The authors remark that only a few weeks of vitamin E deficiency—in this case, eight weeks--has the potential to cause cognitive dysfunction.
"These results indicate that chronic vitamin E deficiency may slowly accelerate brain oxidation," they conclude. "Thus, vitamin E concentrates may need to be monitored in order to prevent the risk of cognitive dysfunction, even under normal conditions." |
