Vitamin E Boosts Immune Function

Vitamin E has eight forms, four of which are tocotrienols, designated as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta forms.  Recent research activities have begun to focus on tocotrienols as an emerging therapeutic nutrient for a variety of medical conditions.  Zhihong Ren, from Tufts University (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues studied a group of young and old mice, divided into two groups, with both age groups receiving either the normal diet or a diet supplemented with a tocotrienol/soybean oil mixture. The researchers observed that lymphocyte proliferation, a measure of the reproductive capacity of immune cells, was markedly lower in older mice than their younger counterparts. After six weeks of supplementation with tocotrienols, the older mice were observed to have improved lymphocyte proliferation, as compared to old mice consuming the normal diet. No differences were observed between the groups of young mice.  The team concludes that: “These results suggest a beneficial effect of [tocotrienols] in improving the age-related decline in T cell function.”