Vitamin E status in gold-thioglucose-treated obese mice: the influence of weight loss.

The influence of weight-loss and dietary vitamin E supplementation on plasma vitamin E status has been evaluated in Gold-thioglucose induced hypothalamic obese mice. They were submitted for two weeks to different dietary regimens: a normal energy-normal vitamin E diet (standard diet), a low energy-normal vitamin E diet (protein sparing modified fast (PSMF)-diet) and a no energy-no vitamin E diet (total starvation) respectively. Plasma vitamin E levels were significantly higher in the PSMF-treated group (P less than 0.01) but remained constant in the total fast group as compared to obese controls. Plasma vitamin E/cholesterol ratio (being increased (P less than 0.01) in PSMF-mice and decreased (P less than 0.01) in total fast mice) was strongly correlated with dietary vitamin E/fat ratio. These results suggest that dietary vitamin E supplementation can prevent plasma vitamin E to decrease during rapid weight-loss and that vitamin E/fat ratio is the main parameter to evaluate the dietary adequacy of vitamin E supplementation.