Nutritional interrelationships among vitamin E, selenium, antioxidants and ethyl alcohol in the rat
Levander, O.A.; Morris, V.C.; Higgs, D.J.; Varma, R.N.
Journal of Nutrition 103(4): 536-542
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-3166 PMID: 4735055 Document Number: 66412
Weanling male Fischer albino rats were given to appetite a basal necrogenic diet of Torula yeast 30, salts 3.5, tocopherol-stripped lard 5, vitamins 1 and sucrose to 100%, deficient in vitamin E and Se, without or with dl- alpha -tocopheryl acetate, Se or various lipid antioxidants; distilled water or a 20% (v/v) ethanol solution were given freely as sole source of drinking fluid. The ethanol delayed the onset of liver necrosis in rats given the deficient diet. In liver slices from deprived rats the addition of ethanol in vitro had no effect on the respiration rate reduced by the deficiency. In rats given ethanol to drink for 5 to 6 weeks, hepatic triglyceride was less when deprived than when given supplements of either 500 mu g/g vitamin E or 0.3 mu g/g Se as Na2SeO3 or both. Accumulation of liver fat was greater in rats on the diets supplemented with either vitamin E or the combination of vitamin E and Se than on the deficient diet; supplementation of the deficient diet with similar amounts of butylated hydroxytoluene or ethoxyquin had little or no effect on deposition of liver triglyceride compared with the deprived group but N,N,'-diphenyl-p-phenylenediamine appeared to inhibit the development of alcoholic fatty liver. Examination of the effect of time on the extent of alcoholic fatty liver showed that in rats on the deficient diet either alone or supplemented with vitamin E and Se pathogenesis was similar for about 4 weeks; thereafter the deprived animals lost much of their liver fat whereas the animals given vitamin E and Se did not.