VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENTATION DECREASES AUTOANTIBODIES TO OXIDIZED LDL

DALLAS -- Antioxidants such as vitamin E can help control levels of autoantibodies associated with oxidized lipid-protein complexes, report Emory University researchers at this week's 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association.

Autoantibodies to oxidatively altered proteins are indicative of the harmful oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a precursor to artery-clogging atherosclerosis. The team, led by Emory University's Sampath Parthasarathy, Ph.D., also reports that levels of such autoantibodies "might serve as an indicator for the efficacy of antioxidants to attenuate oxidation in vivo."

Measurements taken in 21 women without atherosclerosis before and after eight weeks of vitamin E supplementation, indicated a significant decrease in autoantibodies associated with oxidation of lipoproteins.

First author of the study was Nalini Santanam, Ph.D., assistant professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Emory University School of Medicine, and her Emory

departmental colleagues Caroline Jonas, (graduate student in the Nutrition and Health Sciences Program) and Ana A. Murphy, M.D., and Dr. Parthasarathy, who is McCord-Cross Professor and director of research in Gynecology and Obstetrics, and professor of Medicine (Cardiology). The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.