Research Summary
Vitamin E, a name given to a series of related tocopherols with similar biological effects, has been advocated as a stimulant to healing. Unfortunately, no controlled studies have been conducted to substantiate this claim. Based on the findings of Lucy and Dingle, Vitamin E is now understood to be a lysosomal stabilizer. This places it in a category of compounds, such as glucocorticoids and aspirin, which are known to be anti-inflammatory agents and inhibitors of healing.
On the other hand, lysosomal-labilizing compounds, such as Vitamin A, digitonin, testosterone, and papain, have been found to stimulate collagen synthesis and repair. Of these compounds, testosterone and Vitamin A have demonstrated the ability to reverse the inhibitory effects of glucocorticoids on tissue repair. Stuyvesant and Jolley also identified Vitamin E as an anti-inflammatory agent. Therefore, prior findings on the interaction between cortisol and Vitamin A suggest that Vitamin E may inhibit both inflammation and wound repair, and that this inhibitory effect could potentially be reversed by the concurrent administration of Vitamin A.
This study was designed to further test the hypothesis that anti-inflammatory agents, including Vitamin E, which stabilize lysosomes, will inhibit collagen synthesis. Since Vitamin E has been described as both an aid to healing and an anti-inflammatory agent, the study sought to resolve the conflicting information by testing the effect of Vitamin E on collagen synthesis and wound repair.
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