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Beta-carotene as antioxidant
A Bast1, R M van der Plas, H van den Berg
1Department of Pharmacochemistry, Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands.
Objective:
Beta-carotene has been shown to exhibit a good radical-trapping antioxidant activity in vitro. We were interested to see if dietary beta-carotene in combination with various intake levels for vitamin A would also inhibit lipid peroxidation.
Design:
Sixty male Wistar rats received vitamin A (as retinyl palmitate) for 14 weeks in the diet (40,000, 4000 and 400 IU/kg food). In the last 5 weeks one half of each group received beta-carotene (50 mg/kg food). Lipid peroxidation (induced by 10 microM Fe2+ and 0.2 mM ascorbate) was measured ex vivo in liver microsomes.
Results:
The beta-carotene-treated group had similar beta-carotene levels in liver microsomes (3.4 nmol per mg protein) as the other group, irrespective of vitamin A intake. No difference in lipid peroxidation was seen between the groups with different beta-carotene and vitamin A diets.
Conclusion:
Beta-carotene is not effective in vitro as antioxidant in liver microsomes of rats fed beta-carotene with various intakes of vitamin A.