The effect of vitamin e supplementation on brain tissue element levels in epileptic rats

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how the application of vitamin E affected the levels of chemical elements in the brain tissues of epilepsy-induced rats. 40 adult Wistar male rats were separated into 4 equal groups: Group 1: control, Group 2: vitamin E; Group 3: penicillin to induce epileptic form activity and Group 4: penicillin + vitamin E. After three months of treatment, an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer was used to analyze the presence of the elements in brain tissue sections (brain, brainstem, and cerebellum) of the decapitated animals.The levels of magnesium in the groups that received vitamin E (G2 and 4) were significantly higher than in the control group (G1) and the first epilepsy group (G3) (p<0.05). Chrome and zinc levels in brain, brainstem, and cerebellum tissue of the two epilepsy groups (G3-4) decreased significantly compared to the control group (G1) and the vitamin E group (G2) (p<0.05). The levels of copper in the brainstem and lead in the cerebellum of the first epilepsy group (G3) were higher than in all other groups (p<0.05).The results showed that the application of vitamin E in experimental epilepsy may have a limited effect on element metabolism in brain tissue. A decline in zinc levels in the brain, brainstem and cerebellum tissues in epilepsy groups constitutes another result of our study. This should be examined further to determine whether decreased levels of zinc play a role in epilepsy pathogenesis.