Vitamin E and paraquat poisoning.

Whether vitamin E treatment might have a protective effect in paraquat poisoning was examined in male rats which received single ip paraquat injections in the LD50 dose range (14.8 mg cation/kg body weight). Vitamin E (d, alpha-tocopherol acetate in soybean oil) was administered either 30 minutes after paraquat (923 IU/kg ip) followed by a second injection 24 hours later (462 IU/kg im), or 2 hours before paraquat (1,000 IU/kg im) followed by a second injection 26 hours later (500 IU/kg im). In neither experimental arrangement did the vitamin E therapy alter the acute (7 day) mortality nor reduce the characteristic pathological lung changes observed at death or in 30-day survivors examined by light microscopy when compared with an equal number of non-treated control animals.