Glucose and dietary vitamin E protection against catalase inactivation in the red cells of rats.

One-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a basal vitamin E deficient diet with or without 50 ppm vitamin E supplementation for 7 months. The washed red cells were suspended in a saline-phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, that contained either 0, 0.011 or 0.055 M glucose and were incubated at 37 C with constant shaking. Catalase activity in the red cells of vitamin E deficient rats was decreased 74% (P less than 0.001) at the end of the 22-hour incubation, and only 9% of the initial value was retained at the end of 46 hours. In the red cells of the vitamin E supplemented group, 82% and 48% of catalase activity was retained at the end of 22 and 46 hours, respectively. Glucose in the medium significantly increased catalase activity during the early hours of incubation and retarded the enzyme inactivation at the end of 22 and 46 hours in both groups of animals. The activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were not significantly altered by the presence of glucose or by the status of dietary vitamin E during the incubation. The results suggest that both glucose and dietary vitamin E provide protection against inactivation of catalase under the experimental conditions.