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Effect of High Levels of Dietary Vitamin E on Liver and Plasma Lipids and Fat Soluble Vitamins in Rats¹

Division of Human Nutrition, School of Home Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5

The effect of low, moderate and high dietary vitamin E (ranging from 0 to 25,000 IU/kg diet) on the levels of -tocopherol, total lipids, cholesterol and vitamin A in liver and plasma of rats fed for 8 and 16 months was studied. A logarithmic relationship was observed between dietary levels of vitamin E and the concentrations of this vitamin in liver and plasma. The total -tocopherol in whole liver of rats fed different levels of dietary vitamin E for 16 months was approximately double in comparison to rats fed for 8 months. Total lipids in liver were significantly increased by excess vitamin E supplementation in rats fed for 8 months, but not in rats fed for 16 months. There was no significant change observed in liver cholesterol level at 16 months. Plasma total lipids and cholesterol were lowered by vitamin E deficiency and also by dietary levels higher than 2,500 IU vitamin E/kg diet in rats fed for 16 months. Liver vitamin A storage was 4.5 times higher in rats supplemented with vitamin E than in rats without any supplement, but the effect of excess dietary vitamin E was no different from that of normal level (25 IU/kg diet). The findings of our long-term study are compared with the results of other short-term studies and the implications are discussed.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin E • liver lipids • plasma lipids • vitamin A • hypervitaminosis E

¹ Second in a series of papers from this laboratory on hypervitaminosis E, supported by research grants from the National Research Council of Canada and the Research Committee of the University of British Columbia.

² Postdoctoral Research Associate.

³ Professor of Nutrition to whom reprint request should be addressed.

Manuscript received 27 August 1976.