Vitamin E Is Essential for Mouse Placentation but Not for Embryonic Development Itself

Abstract

Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) was discovered 80 years ago to be an indispensable nutrient for reproduction in the female. However, it has not been clarified when or where vitamin E is required during pregnancy. We examined the role of alpha-tocopherol in pregnancy using alpha-tocopherol transfer protein (Ttpa)-deficient mice fed specific alpha-tocopherol diets that led to daily, measurable change in plasma alpha-tocopherol levels from nearly normal to almost undetectable levels. A dietary supplement of alpha-tocopherol to pregnant Ttpa-/- (homozygous null) mice was shown to be essential for maintenance of pregnancy from 6.5 to 13.5 days postcoitum but found not to be crucial before or after this time span, which corresponds to initial development and maturation of the placenta. In addition, exposure to a low alpha-tocopherol environment after initiation of placental formation might result in necrosis of placental syncytiotrophoblast cells, followed by necrosis of fetal blood vessel endothelial cells. When Ttpa(-/-)-fertilized eggs were transferred into Ttpa+/+ (wild-type) recipients, plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations in the Ttpa-/- fetuses were below the detection limit but the fetuses grew normally. These results indicate that alpha-tocopherol is indispensable for the proliferation and/or function of the placenta but not necessary for development of the embryo itself.

Genome wide responses of murine lungs to dietary α-tocopherol

“…Dietary deficiency of α-T is rare but causes fetal death in rats [4], impairs the development of placenta in mice [5], decreases litter size in pigs [6] and causes neuromuscular dysfunctions in rodents, chicken, cattle and humans [1,7,8]. These are complex pathological outcomes in which deficiency of α-T may deregulate the transcription of multiple gene families.…”

Fertilization and development of mice (Mus musculus) embryo in vitro after supplementing the extract of Pandanus conoideus

“…Study on the influence of supplementing vitamin E on mice's fertility, cleavage, and embryo development had been conducted by Hassa et al (2007), but the result showed there was no influence. Further, a study was done by Jishage et al (2005) on mice, showed that α-tocopherol was needed for proliferation or the functioning of a placenta.…”

A gestational diet high in fat-soluble vitamins alters expression of genes in brain pathways and reduces sucrose preference, but not food intake, in Wistar male rat offspring

“…Vitamin D also contributes to brain development by regulating gene expression through nuclear vitamin D receptors (VDR) in brain cells and its active metabolite 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 (Johansson and Melhus 2001;Eyles et al 2003;McGrath et al 2004). Vitamin E (␣-tocopherol) during pregnancy contributes to the proliferation and/or function of the placenta through its antioxidant properties (Jishage et al 2005), as well as regulates gene expression and several signal transduction events (Azzi 2007). Vitamin K is also important for fetal development as it is implicated in the formation of brain cell membranes (Ferland 2012a(Ferland , 2012b.…”