Effect of vitamin E,selenium and age on lipid peroxidation events in rat cerebrum

The effect of 8 and 20 weeks of dietary vitamin E (200 IU/kg diet) and/or selenium (0.2 ppm) supplementation or deficiency on oxidative processes in cerebrum of 1 and 15 month old male F344 rats was examined. After 8 weeks of treatment a 32-fold difference in plasma and a 3-fold difference in cerebrum alpha-tocopherol (a-T) level was found between vitamin E supplemented and deficient young rats. These differences were 1.8- and 1.5-fold, respectively, in old rats and increased to 8- and 2-fold differences, respectively, after an additional 12 weeks of treatment. Selenium deficiency had a significant effect on plasma glutathione peroxidase activity and a slight sparing effect on plasma a-T content. Endogenous lipid peroxides (thiobarbituric acid reactants present without incubation) in cerebrum were not correlated with a-T concentration or age. However, incubation of cerebrum homogenates with or without the addition of 0.1 mM Fe²⁺, 0.25 mM ascorbic acid, or 100 mg % acetaldehyde revealed that dietary vitamin E has a major role and selenium has a minor role in the protection against ex-vivo and possibly in vivo lipid peroxidation in cerebrum.