Foreign publications published the results of a study according to which a daily dose of vitamin E is able to combat functional impairment in people with Alzheimer's disease.
Now scientists say that vitamin E can prevent or reduce brain damage in stroke.
A stroke occurs when the cerebral vessel is blocked by a thrombus or fat deposits, which leads to mass death of nerve cells.
After a stroke, patients are often prescribed aspirin, a drug that interferes with platelet aggregation (clumping) and stops the formation of blood clots.
In 4% of cases, American doctors during the first 3 hours after a stroke resort to treatment with tissue activator plasminogen - the only specific drug for stroke, which is approved by the FDA. It quickly dissolves thrombi, restoring blood flow in the affected area of ??the brain.
Lead researcher Dr. Cameron Rink, a fellow at Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, says: "This is frustrating, but after 25 years of research and testing of more than 1,000 neuroprotective substances, scientists have not found the means to prevent brain damage, but only the means for treatment symptoms after a stroke ».
Tocotrienol restores blood supply.
In animal studies, scientists have found that tocotrienol additives - fat-soluble vitamins of group E - can activate collateral blood supply to ischemic areas of the brain during stroke. That's why Dr. Rink spent the last 12 years concentrating his research on finding a preventive remedy based on vitamin E.
In the course of his work, Dr. Rink and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments on animals, studying the effect of tocotrienol additives on blood vessels during a stroke. Tocotrienol, a kind of vitamin E, is contained in palm oil; it is able to block the production of cholesterol in the liver, reducing total cholesterol.
After 10 weeks of treatment of animals with tocotrienol, scientists noticed that they had activated arteriogenesis - an increase in the diameter of existing and creation of new arteries that should improve the blood supply of brain tissue. This process "offers" brain tissue an alternative collateral blood supply, preventing damage during a stroke.
Commenting on his results, Dr. Rink said: "We know that people with well developed collateral (bypass) vessels recover better after a stroke. We think that tocotrienol improves the function of collaterals, helping to better protect against stroke ".
To study the effect of tocotrienol on arteriogenesis, Dr. Rink applied the laser capture microdissection method (lasercapturemicrodissection). This method allows you to isolate and analyze cells of the nervous tissue and blood vessels precisely from those areas where vitamin E stimulates arteriogenesis.
Using this technique, Dr. Rink was also able to analyze the activity of cellular micro-RNA during a stroke. These are small pieces of non-coding DNA that turn off the synthesis of proteins, thus stopping the communication of cells with each other.
This study "led scientists to a better understanding of how tocotrienol affects genes during a stroke".
Today, Dr. Rink conducts a study using tocotrienol in patients who have survived a stroke. He seeks to understand whether vitamin E can prevent or reduce brain damage during a second stroke, which is usually more devastating.
The doctor believes that one day vitamin E will become the same standard treatment for stroke as today is aspirin for coronary artery disease.
medbe. en.