Vitamin E attenuates reserpine-induced oral dyskinesia and striatal oxidized glutathione/reduced glutathione ratio (GSSG/GSH) enhancement in rats

The effects of a previous and concomitant treatment with vitamin E (VE) were studied on an animal model of tardive dyskinesia, i.e., the frequency of spontaneous tongue protrusions in rats treated with reserpine (RE). VE (5, 10, 20 or 40 mg/kg administered intraperitoneally, daily, for 19 days) attenuated the increase in tongue protrusion frequency induced by RE (1 mg/kg administered subcutaneously, on Days 16 and 18, 1 h after VE), which was quantified on Day 19. In a second experiment, a similar treatment with 20 mg/kg VE attenuated RE-induced increase in the striatal ratio of oxidized/reduced glutathione (GSSG/GSH), an index of the oxidative stress process. These results support the free radical hypothesis of tardive dyskinesia. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.