Vitamin E deficiency in rabbits receiving a high PUFA diet with and without a non-absorbable antioxidant. 1. Incorporation of [1-14C]glycine into skeletal muscle proteins.

Previous studies of metabolic changes in vitamin E-deficient animals were often difficult to interpret because the vitamin E-free, high PUFA diets used in such studies may have contained high levels of peroxides. Presumed effects of vitamin E deficiency could have been effects of peroxide consumption. Addition of the non-absorbable polymeric antioxidant Anoxomer to a semisynthetic vitamin E-free diet containing cod liver oil was found to suppress peroxide formation. Nevertheless, this diet produced necrotizing myopathy, characterized by high urinary creatine excretion, muscular weakness, and increased rate of incorporation of [1-14C] glycine into muscle proteins. These effects were prevented by vitamin E supplementation. The increased rate of muscle protein turnover is obviously the result of vitamin E deficiency, not the result of consumption of dietary peroxides.