Reduced concentration of hepatic alpha-tocopherol in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

The concentration of alpha-tocopherol was measured in liver biopsy specimens obtained from 83 patients with alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver diseases. The mean hepatic vitamin E content (as alpha-tocopherol) was significantly lower in 23 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (17.6 +/- 12.1 nmol/mg wet weight liver), compared with 12 patients with normal liver histology (39.2 +/- 29.7 nmol/mg, P less than 0.01). The mean serum concentration of alpha-tocopherol was lower in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (13.9 +/- 7.0 mumol/l) than in individuals with alcoholic fatty liver (21.3 +/- 9.3 mumol/l, P less than 0.01) and patients with normal liver histology (23.4 +/- 11.6 mumol/l, P less than 0.01). A decreased ratio of serum alpha-tocopherol/total serum lipids was also observed in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, compared with patients with normal liver histology (P less than 0.05). There was a significant correlation between concentrations of alpha-tocopherol in liver and serum (r = 0.43, P less than 0.001). Furthermore, serum alpha-tocopherol correlated with retinol (r = 0.53, P less than 0.001), selenium (r = 0.45, P less than 0.001), and albumin (r = 0.37, P less than 0.001) in serum. We suggest that the reduced content of hepatic alpha-tocopherol observed in some patients may play a role in ethanol-induced lipid peroxidation.