FACTORS ALTERING CONCENTRATION OF CAROTENOIDS 519 



ley et a?. 984 consider that two factors are related to the plasma level of 

 tocopherol in diabetics, namely, the tocopherol intake and the level of 

 plasma cholesterol. The apparent lack of relationship between plasma 

 tocopherol and the intake of vitamin E in diabetics not receiving supple- 

 ments may be due to the concomitant effect of cholesterol. It is believed 

 that the tocopherol levels in diabetic patients are related to the cholesterol 

 levels. 984 - 985 



(c) Plasma Tocopherols in Muscular Dystrophies. Although Morgulis 

 and Spencer 986 found an increase in the lipid phosphorus and cholesterol in 

 rabbits having muscular dystrophy, no alterations in serum tocopherol 

 have been established. For example, Minot and Frank 974 reported 

 plasma levels of tocopherol ranging from 0.73 to 1.28 milligram per cent 

 in the case of eight boys five to nineteen years of age who were afflicted 

 with pseudohypertrophic muscular dystrophy, while the range of plasma 

 tocopherol in normal subjects of the same age was from 0.64 to 1.12 milli- 

 gram per cent. When tocopherol was administered to* the dystrophic 

 patients, a prompt rise of 20 to 50% occurred in the levels of blood to- 

 copherol; however, no improvement in creatinuria was noted. 



(d) Plasma Tocopherols in Miscellaneous Abnormalities. Lemley and 

 co-workers 950 were unable to show that heart disease exerted any effect on 

 blood tocopherol. Thus, the mean value of tocopherol in the plasma of 

 sixty-two cardiac patients was 0.94 ± 0.35 milligram per cent, as contrasted 

 with an average of 0.92 ± 0.29 milligram per cent in a comparable 

 hospital group of forty-two patients. These workers reported 1.09 ± 0.17 

 milligram per cent as the average figure for plasma tocopherol of young 

 healthy adults. 



Liver disease, also, probably fails to cause any decrease in serum to- 

 copherol. Although the average figure of 0.95 milligram per cent for the 

 blood vitamin E in forty-three patients with hepatic disease is considerably 

 lower than the figure for normal healthy adults obtained by this investiga- 

 tor, namely, 1.23 milligram per cent, it does, however, closely approximate 

 the value obtained in the case of fifty-seven hospitalized patients free from 

 liver disease who had a mean plasma tocopherol level of 1.02 milligram 

 per cent. 



984 E. H. Bensley, A. F. Fowler, M. V. Creaghan, B. A. Moore, and E. K. McDonald, 

 /. Nutrition, 40, 323-327 (1950). 



985 W. J. Darby, M. E. Ferguson, R. H. Furman, J. M. Lemley, C. T. Ball, and G. R. 

 Meneely, International Conference on Vitamin E, New York Acad. Sci., Apr. 15-16, 

 1949; cited by E. H. Bensley, A. F. Fowler, M. V. Creaghan, B. A. Moore, and E. K. 

 McDonald, /. Nutrition, 40, 323-327 (1950), p. 326. 



986 S. Morgulis and H. C. Spencer, J. Nutrition, 12, 173-190 (1936). 



