Vitamin E and Health - v. 1031

Vitamin E was identified 80 years ago as a micronutrient essential for reproduction (fertility) in animals.

Although widely acknowledged as the most important lipid-souble antioxidant, its precise role(s) in the maintenance of human health is still unclear.

Indeed the use of vitamin E in a number of recent poorly designed intervention studies has only added to this uncertainty.

In the fifteen years since the last major conference on vitamin E was held by the New York Academy of Sciences, a number of novel functions have been identified for the family of vitamin E molecules.

There is now new information regarding the role of vitamin E in the regulation of cellular signaling and gene activity, the role of proteins that specifically bind and guide alpha-tocopherol to (sub) cellular destinations, and the metabolism of individual tocopherols.

For example, recent observations of tissue-specific functions of vitamin E identified by high-density oligonucleotide microarrays (gene chips) could not have been predicted from the known functions of alpha-tocopherol. Furthermore, information has been and will be emerging for the role of vitamin E in the prevention of infections and treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress and aging.

This volume reviews the progress in this field since the 1989 conference, provides new insights into vitamin E's function, and indicates directions for vitamin E research over the next decade.