Severe Vitamin E deficiency modulates airway allergic inflammatory responses in the murine asthma model

Allergic asthma is a complex immunologically mediated disease associated with increased oxidative stress and altered antioxidant defenses. It was hypothesized that α-tocopherol (α-T) decreases oxidative stress and therefore its absence may influence allergic inflammatory process, a pathobiology known to be accompanied by oxidative stress. Therefore, selected parameters of allergic asthma sensitization and inflammation were evaluated following ovalbumin sensitization and re-challenge of α-T transfer protein (TTP) knock-out mice (TTP^-/-) that have greatly reduced lung α-T levels (e.g.<5%) compared to their litter mate controls (TTP^+/+). Results showed that severe α-T deficiency result in a blunted lung expression of IL-5 mRNA and IL-5 protein and plasma IgE levels compared with TTP^+/+ mice following immune sensitization and rechallenge, although lung lavage eosinophil levels were comparable in both genomic strains. It is concluded that the initial stimulation of immune responses by the TTP^-/- mice were generally blunted compared to the TTP^+/+ mice, thus diminishing some aspects of subsequent allergic inflammatory processes.