Association between Plasma Tocopherol Levels and Related Factors in Middle-Aged Korean Men

ABSTRACT

Vitamin E in the body system plays an important role in preventing chronic diseases by decreasing the oxidative stress by free-radicals. However, there are not enough researches on analyzing the primary factors affecting vitamin E levels in the blood in Korean adults. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine blood tocopherol levels and the primary factors affecting the status. A complete lifestyle survey was performed on 314 Korean adult men and surveyed their smoking, drinking and exercising habits. The average plasma level of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol showed similar mutual relations with plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), or low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (p < 0.001). Plasma alpha-tocopherol level of the subjects did not show any difference as smoking, drinking and exercising habits changed. However, gamma-tocopherol per TG showed much lower figure in smokers than non smokers (p < 0.05). Amongst diet factors, plasma alpha-tocopherol level showed negative correlations with Vitamin E intake, while gamma-tocopherol level showed positive correlations with Vitamin E intake. Erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and plasma tocopherol showed negative correlations, and catalase activity and plasma alpha-tocopherol showed positive correlationship. The level of cell DNA damage of lymphocyte and plasma alpha- or gamma-tocopherol showed negative correlations. As a result of this research, the factors that affect Korean adult men's plasma alpha-tocopherol level are plasma TG, LDL-C and cell DNA damage in lymphocyte, while the factors that affect gamma-tocopherol level are plasma TG, LDL-C and vitamin E intake based on multiple regression analysis. These findings implies that the level of different types of tocopherol depends on slightly different factors. A further research is needed on the factors involved in the differentiation of the types of tocopherol.