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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Boston, Massachusetts » Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #234160
Title: Cytokine response to vitamin E supplementation is dependent on pre-supplementation cytokine levels

Author
item BELISLE, SARAH - JM USDA HNRCA @ TUFTS
item LEKA, LYNETTE - JM USDA HNRCA @ TUFTS
item Dallal, Gerald
item Jacques, Paul
item LISTA, JAVIER DELGADO - HOSP UNIV REINA SOFIA
item Ordovas, Jose
item Meydani, Simin

Submitted to: Biofactors
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/31/2008
Publication Date: 12/30/2008
Citation: Belisle, S.E., Leka, L.S., Dallal, G., Jacques, P., Lista, J., Ordovas, J.M., Meydani, S. 2008. Cytokine response to vitamin E supplementation is dependent on pre-supplementation cytokine levels. Biofactors. 33:191-200.

Interpretive Summary: When the body has an infection, it produces proteins called cytokines that help the body resist the infection. With age, the body is less able to fight off infections. Vitamin E supplements have been suggested to improve the body’s ability to fight off infection. The improvements with vitamin E supplements may be from the effect of vitamin E on cytokines. However, not all elderly individuals that take vitamin E supplements have the same improvement in response to infection. Another group of researchers showed that the effect of vitamin E supplements on an individual’s immune response may depend on their immune response at the time they begin taking the supplements. We tested if the level of cytokines at the beginning for vitamin E supplementation changed the effect of vitamin E on cytokine production. To test this, we used information on cytokine production from a group of elderly people who were given vitamin E supplements for one year and a group given a placebo for a year. We found that for cytokines named IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma the effect of vitamin E on some cytokines in elderly people may be influenced by level of cytokine production before supplementation. The information from our study adds to the body of knowledge that will eventually help us determine why vitamin E does not effect all people the same way. Such knowledge will help us determine which elderly people might benefit the most from taking vitamin E supplements.

Technical Abstract: Vitamin E supplementation has been suggested to improve immune response in the aged in part by altering cytokine production. However, there is not a consensus regarding the effect of supplemental vitamin E on cytokine production in humans. There is evidence that baseline immune health can affect immune response to supplemental vitamin E in the elderly. Thus, the effect of vitamin E on cytokines may depend on their pre-supplementation cytokine response. Using data from a vitamin E intervention in elderly nursing home residents, we examined if the effect of vitamin E on ex vivo cytokine production of IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma depended on baseline cytokine production. We observed that the effect of vitamin E supplementation on cytokine production depended on pre-supplementation production of the respective cytokines. The interactions between vitamin E and baseline cytokine production were not explained covariates known to impact cytokine production. Our results offer evidence that baseline cytokine production should be considered in studies that examine the effect of supplemental vitamin E on immune and inflammatory responses. Our results could have implications in designing clinical trials to determine the impact of vitamin E on conditions in which cytokines are implicated such as infections and atherosclerotic disease.