Rehabilitating effect of vitamin E therapy on the ultrastructural changes in skeletal muscles of vitamin E-deficient rabbits.
Ultrastructural repair of the morphological damages produced in nutritional muscular dystrophy was studied by refeeding dystrophic rabbits with vitamin E. Weanling (1.2 kg body weight) rabbits were fed a vitamin E-deficient diet for 24 days. Half of this group was then sacrificed and the remainder was given an initial oral dose of 50 mg of DL-alpha-tocopherol acetate and a vitamin E supplemented diet for 28 days. Control animals were fed a vitamin E supplemented diet with 50 mg of DL-alpha-tocopherol acetate per kilogram of diet. Abnormalities of dystrophic muscles included streaming Z-disk, degenerated mitochondria, fragmented sacroplasmic reticulum and development and aggregation of myelin figures. The effect of vitamin E therapy resulted in significant repair of the dystrophic muscle. Small localized sections of rehabilitated muscle revealed abnormal mitochondria and residual myelin figures.
D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009132:Muscles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D009137:Muscular Dystrophy, Animal / Q000473:pathology*; D011817:Rabbits; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014811:Vitamin E Deficiency / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*
D014810:Vitamin E