Effect of K3T3 sarcomas on tissue concentrations of vitamin E

In this study, the effect of tumor presence on the concentration of vitamin E in the liver, spleen, and kidney of BALB/c mice was measured, and the influence of the degree of fat saturation was assessed. In mice fed diets deficient in vitamin E, the presence of a transplanted sarcoma in the thigh significantly increased the concentration of the vitamin in all 3 organs. This was true whether the fat was saturated or unsaturated (hydrogenated coconut oil [HCO] or corn oil [CO], respectively). The tumor itself was generally lower in tocopherol than were other tissues of the tumor-bearing host. In mice fed diets containing vitamin E, the tumor increased the vitamin content in some organs but not others. Only in the kidney of tumor-bearing mice fed the HCO +/- E diet was there a significantly decreased content of the vitamin. A comparison of the spleen tocopherol content with mitogenesis by concanavalin A revealed a positive correlation, which explains why the spleens of tumor-bearing mice fed a diet deficient in vitamin E exhibited higher mitogenic activity than the spleens of normal mice fed the same diet (namely, the spleens from tumor-bearing mice had a higher content of tocopherol).