Effect of vitamin E supplementation with and without hormone therapy on circulatory inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women

Objective: To investigate the effect of vitamin E with and without estrogen replacement therapy or hormone therapy (HT) on inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women. Design: Prospective, observational study, followed by a randomized, prospective, double-blind study. Setting: Healthy volunteers in an academic medical referral center in Dallas, Texas. Patient(s): Seventy-five postmenopausal healthy women, ages 40 to 65 years, with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels greater <= 30 mIU/mL and a serum estradiol level <= 30 pg/mL. Intervention(s): After enrollment, all women were studied at baseline and received vitamin E for 4 weeks. They were then randomized from week 4 to week 12 to receive vitamin E in conjunction with conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) (0.625 mg), CEE (0.625 mg) plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) (2.5 mg), or placebo. Main Outcome Measure(s): Change from baseline and between groups effects of vitamin E with and without estrogen or hormone therapy on seven circulatory inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women. Result(s): Vitamin E levels increased to a similar extent in all three groups compared with baseline at weeks 4 and 12. Vitamin E increased serum interleukin-6 levels. Combination CEE plus MPA significantly increased C-reactive protein levels. However, there were no consistent statistically significant effects on six other inflammatory markers. Conclusion(s): Vitamin E attenuated C-reactive protein increases in postmenopausal women treated with estrogen replacement therapy but not with HT. Because there was no other persistent effect on six additional inflammatory markers, it can be concluded that vitamin E and HT do not play a major role in promoting a change in cardiovascular inflammatory markers.