Early activation of lung NFkappaB and NF-IL6 and lung cytokine mRNA expression correlated with mortality in polymicrobial sepsis. Although IL-6 mRNA levels correlated with NFkappaB and NF-IL6 activation, tumor necrosis factor-alpha mRNA levels did not, in that they preceded transcription factor activation. These data suggest a potential role for NFkappaB and NF-IL6 activation in the initiation and propagation of acute lung injury.

1. In a randomized, double-blind 6-month study, a-tocopherol (728 mg) or placebo were administered daily to seventy-eight volunteers (forty-nine men, twenty-nine women) to investigate the possible enhancing effect of vitamin E on plasma high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. In addition, the available reported values from short-term (4-6 weeks) studies, as well as the 4-week results from the present study, were combined and analysed for factors which may modify the effect of a-tocopherol on HDL-C.2. No consistent effect of a-tocopherol on plasma HDL-C levels was observed either in the combined 4-week values or in the 6-month study. Further analysis of the combined short-term values and 6-month values indicated that, in subjects with low initial HDL-C levels, treatment with a-tocopherol or placebo did not produce significantly different HDL-C changes.Results of some preliminary short-term studies have suggested that administration of a large daily dose of a-tocopherol (545-728 mg) can increase the plasma levels of high-densitylipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (Herman et al. 1979;. In view of the reported attenuating effects of high HDL-C levels on the development of coronary heart disease and the relative difficulty in achieving a significant and reproducible rise in HDL-C by dietary or pharmacologic means, the reports on the effect of a-tocopherol on this lipid class attracted considerable attention. However, a series of other studies (Schwartz & Rutherford, 1981;Barboriak et al. 1982;Ehnholm et al. 1982;Howard et al. 1982; Kesaniemi & Grundy, 1982; Chapkin et al. 1983;Serfontein et al. 1983), employing relatively small groups of subjects, failed to confirm the general effectiveness of a-tocopherol on HDL-C levels. Few of the reports were based on controlled randomized trials that included a placebo group, and they used a short (4-6 weeks) treatment period.Therefore, we decided to study the effect of a-tocopherol on plasma HDL-C levels in a long-term, double-blind study using patients most likely to benefit from such a treatment, i.e. patients entering a cardiac rehabilitation programme. In addition, we have pooled available reported short-term values on the effect of a-tocopherol on plasma HDL-C in order to investigate the possible variables modifying such an effect. The findings of both the long-term and pooled-values studies indicate little or no consistent effect of oral a-tocopherol on plasma HDL-C levels. M A T E R I A L S A N D M E T H O D SLong-term study Subject selection. A group of forty-nine male patients (24-73 years of age), who were enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation programme, volunteered for the study. A group of twenty-nine female subjects (24-71 years of age), who were spouses of the male patients, https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi

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