Vitamin E Improves the Aminotransferase Status of Patients Suffering from Viral Hepatitis C: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

作者：Alexandra von Herbay, Wilhelm Stahl, Claus Niederau, Helmut Sies · 发表于：Free Radical Research · 年份：1997 · DOI：10.3109/10715769709097863 · 被引用次数：102 · 研究领域：Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Liver Disease and Transplantation、Vitamin C and Antioxidants Research

UNLABELLED: Vitamin E has been shown to protect against liver damage induced by oxidative stress in animal experiments. Based on our previous findings of diminished vitamin E levels in patients suffering from viral hepatitis, we treated 23 hepatitis C patients refractory to alpha-interferon therapy with high doses of vitamin E (2 x 400 IU RRR-alpha-tocopherol/day) for 12 weeks. STUDY DESIGN: pro-spective randomized double-blind crossover design. Clinical parameters including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were determined for monitoring the disease state, in parallel vitamin E plasma levels and plasma lipids were determined. The plasma levels of the alpha-tocopherol were increased about 2-fold in all 23 patients. In 11 of 23 patients the clinical parameters indicative of liver damage were improved during the phase of vitamin E treatment (48% responders). ALT levels in responders were lowered by 46% and AST levels were lowered by 35% after 12 weeks of vitamin E treatment. Cessation of vitamin E treatment was followed by a rapid relapse of ALT and AST elevation, whereas retreatment led to a reproducible ALT decrease by 45% and AST decrease of 37% after a 6 months followup. Since vitamin E is non-toxic even at elevated doses ingested over extended periods, we suggest the treatment of patients refractory to alpha-interferon therapy suffering from hepatitis C with vitamin E as a supportive therapy.