Pharmacology of vitamin E in the newborn.
The use of pharmacologic doses of vitamin E is distinctly different from nutritional vitamin E in regards to issues of efficacy and safety. Repeated administration of pharmacologic doses of vitamin E results in increasing concentrations of vitamin E in all tissues examined. The emergence of a toxic clinical syndrome associated with vitamin E therapy, the effects of vitamin E on important physiologic systems such as granulocyte function and the arachidonic acid cascade, the theoretic possibility of vitamin E becoming a prooxidant at high concentrations, and the continuing controversy regarding the efficacy of pharmacologic doses of vitamin E mandate further study of the dose-response nature of pharmacologic vitamin E therapy from both an efficacy and toxicity perspective.
Roberts
R J
RJ
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Medical Center, University of Virginia Medical School, Charlottesville.
Knight
M E
ME
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000378:metabolism; D024505:Tocopherols; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D024502:alpha-Tocopherol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*
D014810:Vitamin E; D024502:alpha-Tocopherol; D024505:Tocopherols