Vitamin E and Vitamin C Supplementation in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether vitamin E or vitamin C supplementation alters the DNA damage of whole blood white blood cells (WBC) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Thirty-five patients with stable COPD were recruited in this randomized and placebo-controlled study. Patients were randomly assigned to placebo (n = 8), 400 mg/day vitamin E (E400, n = 9), 200 mg/day vitamin E (E200, n = 9), or 250 mg/day vitamin C (C250, n = 9) for 12 weeks. The results showed that vitamin E or C supplementation did not significantly change the mean level of endogenous DNA breakages. Whereas, after 12 weeks of vitamin supplementation, the H2O2-induced DNA breakages were significantly suppressed by 45%, 59%, and 52%, respectively, in E400, E250 and C250 groups (p < 0.05). In addition, neither the level of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) nor spirometric parameters were significantly changed after 12 weeks of supplementation. In conclusion, vitamin E or C supplementation for 12 weeks may improve the resistance of DNA in whole blood WBC against oxidative challenge, although more research is needed to demonstrate the beneficial effect on slowing the decline of lung function in patients with COPD.

Vitamin D and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…Unfortunately, the treatment, mostly comprising bronchodilators of different groups, is entirely symptomatic. Findings of some epidemiological observations demonstrating benefits with dietary supplements and some vitamins have therefore raised the hope of managing COPD with an additional approach to currently available therapy [28][29][30][31].…”

γ-Tocotrienol reduces human airway smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration

“…Vitamins A, C, and E exhibit antioxidant activity [9] and have been tested for their clinical utility in oxidative stress-related diseases such as asthma [10,11] and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [12,13]. Vitamin E occurs in nature in 8 different isoforms, including a, b, g, and d tocopherol and tocotrienol.…”

Mitochondria in lung disease

“…Given the central role of mitochondria and mROS in human disease, several natural antioxidants, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and curcumin, have been investigated both in vitro and in vivo; however, most of these were found to be ineffective in attenuating mROS production in response to an environmental stimulus or in patients with lung disease (129)(130)(131)(132). While there has been considerable advancement in the development of mitochondria-targeted small molecule antioxidants (3) and alternative approaches to targeting mROS (133)(134)(135)(136)(137) appear promising, such mROS-targeted therapeutic approaches must be used with caution.…”