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.

The effect of vitamin E on secondary bacterial infection after influenza infection in young and old mice.

Gay R, Han SN, Marko M, Belisle S, Bronson R, Meydani SN

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

Mortality from influenza is high in the elderly. Deaths are mainly due to secondary complications, including Staphylococcus aureus (SA) infections. Vitamin E (E) supplementation reduces influenza in aged mice. This study determined the efficacy of E supplementation on secondary bacterial infections after influenza in young and old mice. C57BL/6 mice were fed diets containing 30 or 500 ppm E for 4 weeks. Priming with influenza significantly increased SA in the lungs of infected mice fed control diet. Age did not have a significant effect on SA infection alone or SA infection after influenza infection. E supplementation did not have a significant effect on SA infection alone. However, E supplementation abolished the priming effect of influenza on SA.

Published 8 March 2005 in Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1031: 418-21.
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