Increased lysosomal enzymes in muscular dystrophy of vitamin E-deficient rabbits.

The antioxidant function of vitamin E is well established and has received experimental confirmation in several laboratories in recent years (l-7). -1 central question is how vitamin E, functioning as a lipid antioxidant, prevents the physiological alterations of the deficiency state. Many of the vitamin E deficiency symptoms are histologically degenerative and result in tissue wasting (8, 9). Biochemical evidence for increases in turnover (lo), catabolism (ll-13), and urinary excretion of tissue constituents (14-16) in vitamin E deficiency has been reported. In recent years it has become evident that a group of acid hydrolases with enzymic capacity for tissue catabolism is associated with subcellular particles, lysosomes, which have been obtained from liver, kidney, spleen, brain, mammary gland, and lymph nodes (17-19). This paper reports experiments which show that lysosomal enzymes increase in leg muscle of the vitamin E-deficient rabbit and that these increases in enzyme activity precede appearance of muscular dystrophy.