Lipid peroxidation in the lung of rats exposed to endotoxin: effect of vitamin E supplementation.

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility for development of peroxidation in the lung of rats injected with endotoxin. The effect of vitamin E supplementation of the rats was also investigated. Vitamin E supplementation by itself did not cause visible differences or any pathological changes in the lung structure of rats as shown by routine histological examinations. The endotoxin-induced alterations of the lung structures were well expressed in vitamin E-non-supplemented rats, while they were rather negligible in vitamin E-supplemented rats. It was established also that endotoxin caused a 50% increase of the conjugated dienes in the lung of vitamin E-non-supplemented rats. For vitamin E-supplemented rats this increase was less than 13.5%. The fluorescent lipofuscine-like products of lipid peroxidation (known as one of the end products of lipid peroxidation) increased by 120% in vitamin E-non-supplemented rats after exposure to endotoxin, while in vitamin E-supplemented rats this increase did not exceed 26%. Exposure to endotoxin of both vitamin E-non-supplemented and vitamin E-supplemented rats did not lead to significant changes of the lung fatty acid composition. On the basis of these results we assumed that the endotoxin-induced changes of lung structures involve, at least in part, free radical-mediated damage of the lung membrane lipids and proteins.