Vitamin E Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin E, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, antioxidants.

Effect of vitamin E on prostacyclin (PGI2) and prostaglandin (PG) E2 production by human aorta endothelial cells: mechanism of action.

Wu D, Liu L, Meydani M, Meydani SN

Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. dayong.wu@tufts.edu

Vitamin E has been suggested to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Prostanoids are vasoactive molecules, the change in whose production contributes to homeostasis and pathophysiology of the cardiovascular system. In the current study, we determined the effect of vitamin E on production of vasodilative PGI(2) and PGE(2) by human aorta endothelial cells (HAECs) and its underlying mechanism. Results showed that vitamin E increased production of both prostanoids by HAECs. This effect of vitamin E is due to increased release of substrate arachidonic acid, which in turn results from increased expression of phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)).

Published 8 March 2005 in Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1031: 425-7.
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