Effects of vitamin E on the blastogenic response of splenocytes and lipofuscin contents in the hearts and brains of aged mice.

Semipurified diets containing 30 or 500 ppm of dl-alpha-tocopherol (VE) were fed for 12 weeks to young (3-month-old) and old (20-month-old) Swiss mice. We measured the blastogenic response of splenocytes, the serum VE, and the lipofuscin levels in brains and hearts. We found that old mice fed with 500 ppm VE diet had a significantly higher serum VE level and blastogenic response of splenocytes to concanavalin-A (ConA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) than those fed with 30 ppm VE diet (p < 0.01). However, the lipofuscin level in the brains and hearts of aged mice declined substantially with the VE supplementation (heart: p < 0.001, brain: p < 0.05). Furthermore, the effects of dietary VE on the serum VE and tissue lipofuscin content in aged mice were much more obvious than in the young animals.