Vitamin E enhancement of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis antibody response in guinea pigs.

Immune response potentiation by vitamin E was studied in guinea pigs with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis attenuated live-virus vaccine as the antigenic stimulus; antibodies were measured by the hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test. Significantly higher (P less than 0.01) HI antibody titers resulted when guinea pigs were given intramuscular injections of dl-alpha-tocopherol, 33 IU/kg of body weight, before and after immunization. The HI antibody titers to Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus were not increased when guinea pigs were given dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate orally. This is the first report on vitamin E humoral immune response enhancement to an attenuated live-virus vaccine.