The Influence of Vitamin E Deficiency and Combined Deficiency in Vitamin E and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on the Biosynthesis and Degradation of Rat Central Nervous System Myelin

Abstract

The ability to incorporate intracranially injected ¹⁴C-labelled leucine into central nervous system (CNS) myelin was studied in developing rats fed a control diet, a diet deficient in vitamin E and a diet deficient both in vitamin E and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The turnover of radioactivity incorporated into myelin and the distribution of radioactivity between the individual proteins of rat CNS myelin at various stages of the deficiency state was studied. Impaired myelin formation was found in cases of both types of deficiency. The level of incorporated radioactivity was raised by both types of deficiency throughout the experimental period. The mean half life of myelin radioactivity was found higher in combined deficient animals as compared to control and vitamin-E-deficient rats. The distribution of radioactivity between myelinproteins, separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, appeared identical in the three experimental groups.

Mice lacking α-tocopherol transfer protein gene have severe α-tocopherol deficiency in multiple regions of the central nervous system

“…Investigations of chronic vitamin E deficiency produced by feeding rats α-T deficient diets suggested that the CNS was more severely affected than the peripheral nervous system (Towfighi, 1981). Experimental data showing a need for α-T for CNS myelination emerged from studies in rats fed diets that varied in α-T concentrations (Dinesen and Clausen, 1976). Comparative morphometric analysis of cerebellar synapses of young and old rats indicated a role for α-T in preserving synaptic morphology (Bertoni-Freddari et al, 1995;Bertoni-Freddari et al, 1984).…”