Vitamin E and skeletal muscle.

Vitamin E deficiency causes a myopathy in a number of animal species but the mechanism of the damage is obscure. The role of vitamin E in protecting skeletal muscle against exercise-induced damage has been investigated using both in situ and in vitro preparations. Muscles from vitamin E-deficient mice and rats were more prone than normal to damage during contractile activity; the tissue rather than the plasma level of the vitamin is probably the more important factor in this respect. Although vitamin E-deficient muscle was found to be more susceptible to peroxidative damage when stressed with iron and ascorbic acid, it was not possible to demonstrate that the damage occurring during contractile activity was mediated by free radicals.