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Restricted Uptake of Dietary Coenzyme Q Is in Contrast to the Unrestricted Uptake of -Tocopherol into Rat Organs and Cells^1,2,

Clinical Research Center, Division of Medical Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, S-141 86 Huddinge ^* Department of Biochemistry, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

The dietary uptake of -tocopherol and coenzyme Q was investigated in rats. Rats were fed diets supplemented with -tocopherol or coenzyme Q₁₀ (1 g/kg diet) or an unsupplemented control diet. In control rat tissues, the content of coenzyme Q was 4–11 times higher than that of -tocopherol, but in plasma, the ratio was reversed. Among the subcellular fractions of rat liver homogenate, Golgi vesicles and lysosomes had the highest -tocopherol concentration, and high concentrations of coenzyme Q were observed in the outer and inner mitochondrial membranes as well as in lysosomes, Golgi vesicles and plasma membranes. The uptake of -tocopherol into the liver and plasma reached a maximal level after only 2 d of supplementation, whereas in the kidney, heart, muscle and brain, the levels continued to increase throughout the 6-wk treatment period. In contrast, dietary coenzyme Q was taken up into the liver and plasma only, and not into the other organs. This lipid appeared mainly in the Golgi system, whereas -tocopherol exhibited a more general cellular distribution. The decay of the supplied -tocopherol was slow in the various organs, but the disappearance of coenzyme Q was rapid from both liver and plasma. Pretreatment of rats with -tocopherol increased the levels of both endogenous and exogenous coenzyme Q in the liver and plasma. These results demonstrate that the uptake of -tocopherol from the diet is an extensive and general phenomenon at both the tissue and cellular levels, in contrast to the selective and restricted uptake of coenzyme Q.

KEY WORDS: • Coenzyme Q • -tocopherol • rats • plasma • cell organelles

¹ Supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society and the Åke Wiberg foundation.

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 19 February 1996. Revision accepted 30 May 1996.

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