title: Toxicological and antioxidant effects of short-term dehydroepiandrosterone injection in young rats fed diets deficient or adequate in vitamin E.
abstract: This study examined the in vivo antioxidant and/or prooxidant effect of short-term dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) injection and the effect of dietary vitamin E. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (4 wk old) were fed vitamin E-deficient or vitamin E-adequate (30 mg DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg) diet for 4 weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of DHEA for 1 week. The results showed that DHEA injection caused a dose-dependent decrease in body weight, and this effect was more pronounced in vitamin E-deficient rats. In contrast, DHEA injection significantly increased liver, kidney and adrenal weights. Hepatic vitamin E content was significantly lowered by vitamin E deficiency, which led to significantly increased ex vivo and iron-induced lipid peroxidation. DHEA injection did not affect hepatic vitamin E content but significantly decreased ex vivo and iron-induced lipid peroxidation in vitamin E-deficient rats. Hepatic total sulfhydryl (SH) groups and non-protein SH contents were not affected by vitamin E but were significantly increased by DHEA injection, which at 100 mg/kg was not more effective than at 50 mg/kg. Hepatic glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity was significantly decreased by DHEA, but vitamin E alleviated such a decrease. DHEA injection significantly increased hepatic glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity, and the effect was dose dependent in vitamin E-deficient rats. Thus, DHEA may compensate for vitamin E deficiency in vivo, and this effect is masked when dietary vitamin E is adequate. The antioxidant effect of DHEA is accompanied by decreased body weights, enlarged (fat-laden) tissues and altered activities of hepatic GST and G6PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Y F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity*; D004032:Diet; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase / Q000187:drug effects; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000187:drug effects; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012016:Reference Values; D013997:Time Factors; D014811:Vitamin E Deficiency / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone; D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase; D005982:Glutathione Transferase