Vitamin E deprivation in rats: some behavioral and histochemical observations

Rats deprived of vitamin E from age of 4 weeks were tested in four independent behavioral experiments and compared with a group fed a control diet. During a 14-minute session in a hole-board, no differences in the level and the course of habituation of parameters of activity and exploration were found. A second group of animals was trained in an automatically controlled six-arm radial tunnel maze. Although no differences were found in various activity measurements, the deprived animals showed a slightly impaired spatial concept formation during 8 acquisition sessions. Testing their relearning ability of the same maze 18 days later, the vitamin E deprived animals showed a significant impairment. In a third experiment, animals were trained 16 days in the same maze configuration and at day 17 they were exposed to the mirror image of the radial maze. Both groups mastered this reversal with an increased level of activity but without differences in patrolling efficiency. In a fourth behavioral experiment, the effects of scopolamine on deprived animals were examined. Compared to the controls, the vitamin E deprived animals were relatively insensitive to the effects of scopolamine. Autofluorescent neuronal lipofuscin accumulation was found especially in the hippocampus (CA3) of vitamin E deprived animals. Based on these results, the usefulness of vitamin E deprivation as an animal model for accelerated normal aging is discussed.