Impact of vitamin E supplement in standard laboratory animal diet on microvascular manifestation of ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Aimed at improving animal fertility and health, diets for farm and laboratory animals have over the last few years been supplemented with increasing amounts of the antioxidant vitamin E. We now demonstrate by intravital microscopy that feeding hamsters with a vitamin E-supplemented "standard" rodent diet (60 ppm vitamin E) significantly reduces the microvascular manifestations of ischemia/reperfusion injury when compared to animals fed a nonsupplemented diet. Postischemic leukocyte adhesion to venular endothelium was reduced from 770 +/- 204 cells/mm2 at 24 h after reperfusion in control animals on the nonsupplemented diet to 403 +/- 105 cells/mm2 in animals on the "standard" rodent diet (means +/- SD, n = 7 animals per group, p < 0.01). Animals on the nonsupplemented diet showed a dramatic loss of capillary perfusion density until 7 days after reperfusion (to 21 +/- 13% of preischemic baseline values), whereas this loss was significantly attenuated (to 71 +/- 12% of preischemic values, p < 0.01) in animals on the "standard" rodent diet. No difference in the extent of reperfusion injury was seen between animals on the "standard" rodent diet and animals on diets with substantially higher vitamin E supplements (300 ppm-30,000 ppm). Besides underscoring the benefit of vitamin E in reducing the extent of ischemia/reperfusion injury, this study raises the concern that vitamin E supplements in "standard" laboratory animal diets may have a far-reaching impact on biomedical research by jeopardizing established animal models of disease.
Willy
C
C
Institute for Surgical Research, University of Munich, Germany.
Thiery
J
J
Menger
M
M
Messmer
K
K
Arfors
K E
KE
Lehr
H A
HA
D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D000975:Antioxidants; D002196:Capillaries / Q000473:pathology; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D006224:Cricetinae; D004032:Diet; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000502:physiology; D008647:Mesocricetus; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000473:pathology; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014699:Venules / Q000473:pathology; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000975:Antioxidants; D014810:Vitamin E