Vitamin E and Stress

Posted by Chantel M. Contributed by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

In the study of `Dietary vitamin E deficiency increases anxiety-related behavior in rats under stress of social isolation`by Okura Y, Tawara S, Kikusui T, Takenaka A., posted in US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, researchers indicated that the EPM test revealed that vitamin E-deficient rats spent less time in the open arms and showed more stretch-out posture than the control rats, showing that anxiety increased with dietary vitamin E deficiency. Furthermore, vitamin E deficiency-induced anxiety behavior was observed more prominent in individual housed rats than in social housed rats. On the basis of these results, we conclude that dietary vitamin E deficiency induces anxiety in rats especially under stress of social isolation.