High-Dose Vitamin E Supplementation Has No Effect on Ethanol-Induced Pathological Liver Injury1

The effect of a-tocopherol (a-I) supplementation on ethanol-induced liver damage was studied. The intragastric feeding rat model was used in this study. Both normal and a-T supple-mented animals (31 25 lU/kg body weight) were fed liquid diet and ethanol for 1 mo. In pair-fed animals, ethanol was isoca-lorically replaced by dextrose. The blood ethanol level in the ethanol-fed groups was between 150 to 350 mg/dl. Lipid per-oxidation was assessed by measuring liver thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (IBARS) and conjugated dienes. Liver damage was assessed by light microscopy. Overall, chronic ethanol treatment resulted in increase in TBARS and conju-gated dienes in both normal (60 % and 35%, P <.01, respec-tively) and a-T-supplemented groups (50 % and 47%, P <.01, respectively). In animals receiving either dextrose or ethanol and regular diet, there was a significant inverse correlatio