Table 1.

Analysis of tocopherol levels in the serum of Sprague-Dawley rats fed a control diet or mixed tocopherol diets.

Group#	Retinol (μM)§	α-Tocopherol (μM)§	γ-Tocopherol (μM)§	δ-Tocopherol (μM)§
AIN-93M control diet	0.86 ± 0.37	20.8 ± 10.9	0.15 ± 0.09	0.03 ± 0.04
0.1% mixed tocopherols in AIN-93M diet	0.69 ± 0.15	24.0 ± 9.2 (1.2 fold)	1.14 ± 0.74** (7.6 fold)	0.59 ± 0.41** (19.7 fold)
0.3% mixed tocopherols in AIN-93M diet	0.81 ± 0.22	29.4 ± 7.8 (1.4 fold)	2.87 ± 0.73*** (19.1 fold)	1.69 ± 0.44*** (56.3 fold)
0.5% mixed tocopherols in AIN-93M diet	0.81 ± 0.17	27.7 ± 4.3 (1.3 fold)	3.53 ± 1.03*** (23.5 fold)	2.42 ± 0.47*** (80.7 fold)

^#All rats (21 ± 1 days old, n=12 per group) were given an i.p. injection of 50 mg N-methyl-N-nitrosourea per kilogram body weight 1 week before starting the feeding of mixed tocopherols. Rats were fed a control or mixed tocopherol-containing diets for 9 weeks. Serum samples were collected at autopsy and analyzed for the levels of retinol, α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol and δ-tocopherol.

^§The data are expressed as the mean +/− S.E. (N=6).

*Significantly different from control by the Student's t-test, *p <0.05

^**p < 0.01

^***p< 0.001.