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Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108
A systematic search was conducted to find fluorescent compounds in water-soluble mouse tissue extracts which may be related to dietary vitamin E. Female weanling mice were fed a vitamin E deficient or a vitamin E supplemented diet for 14 months. The lung, liver, spleen, kidney, heart, and brain were homogenized and extracted with 2:1 chloroform:methanol and water. The water was lyophilized and the fluorescent compounds were separated by Sephadex G-15 or G-25 column chromatography. For each tissue, thorough excitation and emission spectra were determined for the eluting fractions, then the fluorescence of each fraction was measured at the resulting excitation and emission wavelength maxima. Up to four fluorescent water-soluble compounds responded to dietary vitamin E, depending on the tissue. Vitamin E in the diet led to the decreased accumulation of three of the fluorescent compounds, with excitation and emission wavelengths of: 275 nm/350 nm, 270 nm/310 nm, and 275 nm/350 nm. The fourth compound (320 nm/380 nm) is probably protected by vitamin E in the diet.
KEY WORDS: vitamin E fluorescent compounds lipid peroxidation mouse tissues
1 Supported by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and by USPHS, NIH grant 1 R01 ES02325-01.
2 A preliminary report of part of this study was reported at the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology Meetings in Dallas, TX, April, 1979 (Federation Proc. 38, 2535, 1979).
3 Agricultural Experiment Station 11402.
Manuscript received 6 July 1981.