EFFECT OF DIETARY VITAMIN-E ON LIPOFUSCIN ACCUMULATION WITH AGE IN THE RAT-BRAIN

We investigated the effect of dietary vitamin E on lipofuscin accumula tion with age in the hippocampus, the inferior olive and the cerebellu m of young (3-5 months old) middle-aged (12-14 months old) and old (24 -26 months old) male Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were fed either a v itamin E-deficient diet, vitamin E-supplemented diet or a control diet after reaching four weeks old. We employed both quantitative light mi croscopy using semithin sections and qualitative fluorescence microsco py for the analysis of lipofuscin accumulation with age. The concentra tions of cu-tocopherol were measured simultaneously in both the plasma and the three brain regions investigated. The effect of vitamin E def iciency was statistically significant only in the inferior olive of yo ung rats and in all the three brain regions of middle-aged rats. The e ffect of vitamin E supplementation was statistically significant in al l three brain regions of middle-aged rats. There was no statistically significant effect of vitamin E deficiency or supplementation on lipof uscin accumulation with age as compared with the control rats in all t hree brain regions of old rats. It was thus revealed that dietary vita min E clearly had a significant effect on lipofuscin accumulation with age in the rat brain up until middle age, and that the same effect be came indistinct in the latter half of their life.