518 V. BLOOD LIPIDS 



Athanassiu 978,979 reported that, in a large proportion of women who aborted, 

 low vitamin E levels were observed in the serum (0.2-0.3 milligram per 

 cent), a number of other workers have found no differences in plasma to- 

 copherol levels in non-pregnant, pregnant, or aborting women. 980-982 Scrim- 

 shaw and co-workers 982 report that plasma tocopherols in women increase 

 progressively during the course of normal pregnancy, from 1.05 ± 27 

 milligram per cent during the first eight weeks of gestation to 1.51 ± 0.44 

 milligram per cent by the thirty-third to fortieth week. However, Latschar 

 et a 7 . 975 do not consider that the parturient decreases in the concentrations 

 of vitamin E in the blood of cattle are necessarily unique for that species. 



It is of considerable interest in this connection that the placenta has 

 been shown to be a tissue high in vitamin E. Thus, Athanassiu 983 re- 

 ported an average value of 0.75 milligram per cent (0.56 to 1.07 milligram 

 per cent) for placenta obtained from women who had had normal deliveries. 



c. The Plasma Tocopherol Levels in Abnormal Conditions. Although 

 the deficiency of vitamin E in the diet produces characteristic symptoms 

 in a large variety of the smaller animals, little is known about the blood 

 picture under such conditions. However, van der Kaay and associates 956 

 noted that the serum tocopherol is normal in cows aborting due to Brucella 

 abortus Bang infection, as well as in sterile nymphomaniac and anaphroditic 

 cows. 



(a) Plasma Tocopherols in Sprue. Darby and co-workers 952 demonstrated 

 a marked lowering of plasma tocopherol levels in sprue. The vitamin 

 E values in these patients ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 milligram per cent, as 

 contrasted with 1.06 ± 0.06 milligram per cent for the normal adult con- 

 trols. When the patients suffering from sprue recovered after treatment 

 with liver extract, the blood tocopherol returned to normal (0.97 ± 0.08 

 milligram per cent). Low tocopherol values in the plasma in premature 

 infants have been ascribed to poor lipid absorption; this condition also 

 obtains in sprue. 



(b) Plasma Tocopherols in Diabetes. An examination of the results of 

 270 tests on the serum tocopherols of sixty-three diabetic patients showed 

 that the values were essentially normal 984 in all but seven instances. Bens- 



978 G. Athanassiu, Z. Geburtshiilfe u. Gynakol, 127, 169-195 (1946). 



979 G. Athanassiu, Med. Monatsschr., 2, 186-189 (1948). 



980 K. Faaborg- Andersen, Nord. Med., 82, 2401-2404 (1946). 



981 O. Kaser, Schweiz, med. Wochschr., 78, 535-536 (1948). 



982 N. S. Scrimshaw, R. B. Greer, and R. L. Goodland, Ann. New York Acad. Sci., 52, 

 312-321 (1949). 



983 G. Athanassiu, Klin. Wochschr., 24-25, 170-171 (1946). 



