Assessment of hepatic vitamin E status in adult patients with liver disease

No published reports compare hepatic alpha-tocopherol (adjusted for hepatic lipid content) with indicators of blood alpha-tocopherol in adult patients with various liver diseases. alpha tocopherol was simultaneously measured in liver biopsy tissues and blood from 66 subjects (9 comparison patients hospitalized for biliary tract surgery, 13 with chronic persistent hepatitis, 9 with chronic aggressive hepatitis, 10 with acute hepatitis, 10 with cirrhosis, 7 with both cirrhosis and hepatic cell carcinoma, and 8 with fatty liver). Hepatic, erythrocyte, and plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations were mea sured, as were hepatic and serum lipids. The ratios of alpha-tocopherol to total lipid concentrations (Toc/TL ratios) in plasma and liver were calculated, In both comparison patients and patients with chronic persistent hepatitis and fatty liver, hepatic a-tocopherol concentrations were strongly correlated with hepatic triglyceride and total lipid concentrations (r = .72, P <.001; and r =.75, P <.001, respectively); the relationships (slopes) when hepatic alpha-tocopherol concentrations were compared with hepatic triglyceride and total lipid concentrations were similar ill these patients and ill all. subjects, No strong correlations were found between hepatic and blood alpha-tocopherol parameters in all subjects, These results suggest chat hepatic alpha-tocopherol is present at similar concentrations in triglycerides as well as total cholesterol and phospholipids and that neither plasma Toc/TL ratios nor erythrocyte alpha-tocopherol concentrations are useful indicators of hepatic vitamin E status, The hepatic Toc/TL ratio may be useful to assess total hepatic vitamin E status.