Palm oil vitamin E protects against ischemia/reperfusion injury in the isolated perfused langendorff heart

Abstract We studied the effect of palm oil vitamin E on Langendorff perfused rat hearts subjected to 40 minutes of global ischemia. Our results demonstrated that palm oil vitamin E was more efficient in the protection of isolated Langendorff heart against ischemia/reperfusion injury than tocopherol as measured by its mechanical recovery. Palm oil vitamin E completely suppressed LDH enzyme leakage from ischemic hearts, prevented the decrease in ATP and creatine phosphate levels and inhibited the formation of endogenous lipid peroxidation products. Our data indicate that a palm oil vitamin E mixture containing both alpha-tocopherol and alpha-tocotrienol may be more efficient than alpha-tocopherol alone in the protection of the heart against oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion.