One hundred years of vitamins-a success story of the natural sciences.

The discovery of vitamins as essential factors in the diet was a scientific breakthrough that changed the world. Diseases such as scurvy, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra were recognized to be curable with an adequate diet. These diseases had been prevalent for thousands of years and had a dramatic impact on societies as well as on economic development. This Review highlights the key achievements in the development of industrial processes for the manufacture of eight of the 13 vitamins.

The 80th anniversary of vitamin E: beyond its antioxidant properties.

Molecules provided with an antioxidant function may have additional properties, the latter being sometimes of greater importance than the former. In the last ten years, alpha-tocopherol has revealed precise cellular functions, some of which are independent of its antioxidant/radical scavenging ability. At the posttranslational level, alpha-tocopherol inhibits protein kinase C and 5-lipoxygenase and activates protein phosphatase 2A and diacylglycerol kinase. Some genes (CD36, alpha-TTP, alpha-tropomyosin, and collagenase) are affected by alpha-tocopherol at the transcriptional level. alpha-Tocopherol also induces inhibition of cell proliferation, platelet aggregation and monocyte adhesion. These effects are unrelated to the antioxidant activity of vitamin E, but rather are believed to be a result of specific interactions of vitamin E with components of the cell, e. g. proteins, enzymes and membranes. This review focuses on novel non-antioxidant functions of alpha-tocopherol and discusses the possibility that many of the effects previously attributed to the antioxidant functions can also be explained by non-antioxidant mechanisms.

The selenium-coxsackievirus connection: chronicle of a collaboration.

This review provides a historical account of a collaboration established between a nutritionist and a virologist to investigate the interrelationship of host nutritional status and viral virulence. The parties to this collaboration consider themselves specialists in the fields of antioxidant nutrition and viral immunology, respectively. The advantages of such talent pooling are discussed (rapid startup, well-focused experimentation, ability to visualize the "big picture"), as are some of the disadvantages (limited common scientific vocabulary, proper apportioning of credit, lack of institutional infrastructure to house such efforts). The common perception that some of the most exciting science occurs when the advancing edges of two disparate disciplines intersect is borne out by this project because host nutriture was shown for the first time to influence the genetic make-up of an invading viral pathogen. Encouragement of joint cooperative ventures should have a high priority as demanded by increasingly difficult scientific problems and as desired by scientists themselves who wish to see their research progress more quickly.

Blinded and seeing the light, (John Noseworthy), Lou Gehrig and other tales of enlightenment).

Patients having serious neurological diseases often wonder why clinical trials must use controls and double blinding in order to prove efficacy. Studies on the effect of examiner blinding in multiple sclerosis trials, as well as the published results of an unblinded uncontrolled clinical trial of Vitamin E therapy in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (including Lou Gehrig) provide clear illustrations of the impact of blinding and controls on outcome. These reports serve as a resource for physicians, patients and their families in discussing the rationale for controls and double blinding, and instill caution that should be used when judging results of studies which are unblinded or uncontrolled.

Lou Gehrig and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Is vitamin E to be revisited?

Investigators are beginning to reexamine the use of vitamin E for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Vitamin E was isolated in the 1920s, and the results of animal studies led rapidly to clinical use. Regrettably, vitamin E did not ameliorate the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for Lou Gehrig, but more recent advances may identify subpopulations that do respond to vitamin E.

History of vitamin E in infant nutrition.

Vitamin E was discovered by Evans and Bishop in 1922. Work in the 1930s revealed the chemical structure and the biological function of alpha-tocopherol. In the 1940s Filer and others demonstrated that vitamin E protects tissue unsaturated fatty acids against oxidation. The 1940s and the 1950s marked the beginning of interest in the role of vitamin E in infant nutrition. During this period, investigators examined the intestinal absorption of vitamin E in infants and its use for the prevention of hemolysis, retrolental fibroplasia, intracranial hemorrhage, and pulmonary oxygen toxicity. These studies were the forerunners of more recent studies examining possible benefits of vitamin E therapy in premature infants. Recent studies confirmed earlier reports indicating that enteral administration of vitamin E is the safest and most effective route in infants. Although preventing vitamin E deficiency is clearly necessary, neither earlier nor more recent work has shown any benefit from high-dose vitamin E therapy (greater than 20 IU X kg-1 X d-1) for premature infants.

The first two decades of vitamin E.

This presentation reviews highlights of the first 20 years (1922-1942) of vitamin E. It begins with background information leading to identification of an antisterility factor for rats of both sexes and its acceptance into the vitamin family as vitamin E (1925). Research of the next 12 years revealed a multiplicity of deficiency manifestations: embryonic mortality, testis degeneration, encephalomalacia and exudative diathesis in the chick, and nutritional muscular dystrophy in avian and mammalian species. Toward the close of this period came the isolation of vitamin E from natural sources, determination of its empirical formula, and introduction of the designation alpha-tocopherol for vitamin E (1936). Within the next two years the structural formula of alpha-tocopherol was elucidated, its chemical synthesis accomplished, and its production from natural plant oils by molecular distillation was well established. The existence of other tocopherols with lesser degrees of biological activity became recognized. Also, the concurrent development of a chemical method for determining the vitamin E content of alpha-tocopherol in foods, body tissues and body fluids, which replaced the very laborious bioassay procedure, greatly facilitated later advances in knowledge of the distribution and nature of vitamin E.