Study Links Vitamin E Deficiency with Brain Damage

14 Apr 2015 --- Researchers have discovered that vitamin E deficiency may cause neurological damage by interrupting a supply line of specific nutrients.

The study, carried out by researchers at Oregon State University, showed that zebrafish fed a diet deficient in vitamin E throughout their life had about 30 per cent lower levels of DHA-PC, which is part of the cellular membrane in every brain cell.

Low levels of DHA-PC in human blood has been found to be a way of predicting a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, as shown in other recent studies. 

The study on zebrafish was supported by the National Institutes of Health, and the findings have been published in the Journal of Lipid Research.

The research also studied the levels of compounds called Iyso PLs, which are nutrients that help get DHA into the brain. The results showed that the Iyso PLs are, on average, 60 per cent lower in the fish on a vitamin E deficient diet. 

The year-old zebrafish used in this study, and the deficient levels of vitamin E they were given, are equivalent to humans eating a low vitamin E diet for a lifetime. In the United States, 96 percent of adult women and 90 percent of men do not receive adequate levels of vitamin E in their diet.

"This research showed that vitamin E is needed to prevent a dramatic loss of a critically important molecule in the brain, and helps explain why vitamin E is needed for brain health," said Maret Traber, the Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Micronutrient Research in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU and lead author on this research.

"Human brains are very enriched in DHA but they can't make it, they get it from the liver," said Traber, who also is a principal investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU. 

"The particular molecules that help carry it there are these lyso PLs, and the amount of those compounds is being greatly reduced when vitamin E intake is insufficient. This sets the stage for cellular membrane damage and neuronal death."

DHA is the needed nutrient, Traber said, but it's lyso PLs which help get it into the brain. It's the building block.

"You can't build a house without the necessary materials," Traber said. "In a sense, if vitamin E is inadequate, we're cutting by more than half the amount of materials with which we can build and maintain the brain."

Some other research, Traber said, has shown that the progression of Alzheimer's disease can be slowed by increased intake of vitamin E, including one study published last year in theJournal of the American Medical Association. 

Vitamin E in human diets is most often provided by dietary oils, such as olive oil. But many of the highest levels are in foods not routinely considered dietary staples - almonds, sunflower seeds or avocados.

"There's increasingly clear evidence that vitamin E is associated with brain protection, and now we're starting to better understand some of the underlying mechanisms," Traber said.