Alpha-Tocopherol Acetate

Antioxidant supplementation (alpha‑tocopherol acetate 2,000 IU/d plus crystalline ascorbate 500 mg/d) was compared to control (alpha‑tocopherol acetate 200 IU/d) in 392 feedlot heifers over 94 days. Supplementation tended to decrease dry matter intake (P=0.08) and improve feed efficiency (P=0.12) but did not affect average daily gain, liver abscess incidence (25.6% vs. 23.5%), hot carcass weight, or other carcass traits. The authors conclude that feeding these antioxidants at the tested doses is not a viable alternative to antibiotics for controlling liver abscesses in finishing cattle.

Fig. 1 Effect of liver abscess severity on HCW gain. (Müller HC, et al., 2018)

Interindividual variability of α‑tocopherol (vitamin E) metabolites was studied in 17 healthy volunteers before and after one week of supplementation with 800 IU/day RRR‑α‑tocopherol using LC‑MS/MS. Enzymatic metabolite levels showed marked interindividual variability that increased with supplementation. Most metabolites, except α‑CEHC and the long‑chain metabolites M1 and α‑13'OH, were not reliable as sensitive indicators of α‑tocopherol intake due to this variability. The free radical‑derived metabolite α‑tocopheryl quinone significantly correlated with post‑supplementation α‑tocopherol levels. Supplementation stimulated PXR expression in leukocytes, and baseline α‑tocopherol correlated with PXR. These findings provide critical analytical and molecular information on vitamin E metabolism and its intrinsic variability, which should be considered in future nutrigenomics and intervention studies.

Fig. 2 Chemical structure of the vitamin E compounds included in this metabolomics investigation. (Bartolini D, et al., 2021)