Gamma-tocopherol, a major form of vitamin E in diets: Insights into antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, mechanisms, and roles in disease management.

γ-Tocopherol (γT) is a major form of vitamin E in the US diet and the second most abundant vitamin E in the blood and tissues, while α-tocopherol (αT) is the predominant vitamin E in tissues. During the last >25 years, research has revealed that γT has unique antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities relevant to disease prevention compared to αT. While both compounds are potent lipophilic antioxidants, γT but not αT can trap reactive nitrogen species by forming 5-nitro-γT, and appears to show superior protection of mitochondrial function. γT inhibits ionophore-stimulated leukotrienes by blocking 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) translocation in leukocytes, decreases cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-catalyzed prostaglandins in macrophages and blocks the growth of cancer cells but not healthy cells. For these activities, γT is stronger than αT. Moreover, γT is more extensively metabolized than αT via cytochrome P-450 (CYP4F2)-initiated side-chain oxidation, which leads to formation of metabolites including 13'-carboxychromanol (13'-COOH) and carboxyethyl-hydroxychroman (γ-CEHC). 13'-COOH and γ-CEHC are shown to be the predominant metabolites found in feces and urine, respectively. Interestingly, γ-CEHC has natriuretic activity and 13'-COOH inhibits both COX-1/-2 and 5-LOX activity. Consistent with these mechanistic findings of γT and metabolites, studies show that supplementation of γT mitigates inflammation and disease symptoms in animal models with induced inflammation, asthma and cancer. In addition, supplementation of γT decreased inflammation markers in patients with kidney diseases and mild asthma. These observations support that γT may be useful against inflammation-associated diseases.