To clarify the one of the physiological effects of vitamin E, 1976 adult albino mice were used in present study. Vitamin E was injected on a daily dose of 5㎎; 10 days for the adequate dose group and 20 days for the overdose group. After completion o...
To clarify the one of the physiological effects of vitamin E, 1976 adult albino mice were used in present study. Vitamin E was injected on a daily dose of 5㎎; 10 days for the adequate dose group and 20 days for the overdose group. After completion of injections, animals were put into the starvation-absolute and free access of water groups. Change of body weight, survival time withstanding to the starvation, histochemical observations of the gastrointestinal mucosa were calculated at the periods of starvation; 24, 48 hours and at the time of death.
The results of the study are summarized as follows:
1. Administration of adequate dose of vitamin E resulted prolongation of survival time against starvation, but excess amount resulted shortening tendency in survival time.
2. Vitamine E administration accelerated the rate of body weight increment and the loss of body weight due to starvation was rather slow and moderate.
3. There was not much difference in histometrical feature of the gastrointestinal mucosa in adequate vitamin E administration group, but in histochemical finding, amount of cellular synthetic material was increased. However, overdose vitamin E group showed edematous mucous membrane and decreased stainability because of the reduction of the number of mucous secreting cells and cellular synthetic material.
4. The changes of histological finding due to starvation were more prominent in duodenal mucosa compared to that of stomach, but decrease in mucous material was more prominant in stomach. The neutral mucous substance in gastric mucosa, the acid mucous substance in duodenal crypt and the neutral mucus in duodenal villi were mainly decreased respectively.
5. Decrease of intensity and stain reactivity in secretory granules of Paneth cell due to starvation was suppressed by the vitamin E. It seems that vitamin E causes acceleration of the secretory granule synthesis.
6. Reduction in the number of epithelial lining cell of duodenum following starvation was more apparent in the villi than the crypt, while goblet cells decreased generally less grade. The tendency showed that vitamin E injected groups were suppressed in the cell reduction.
7. In general, free access of water groups survived longer than absolute starvation groups and showed mild reduction whenever fasting proceed. However, any noticeable histological difference was not found between two groups.