Effect of Different Vitamin E-deficient Basal Diets on Hepatic Catalase and Microsomal Cytochrome P-450 and b₅ in Rats

Male Wistar rats maintained for a period of 6 weeks on a basal vitamin E-deficiency diet consisting of 70% sucrose, 20% vatamin-free casein, 4% tocopherol, stripped lard, 4% salt mixture, and 2% tocopherol-free vitamin fortification mixture were used to compare two sets of commonly used salt mixture(salt mixture USP XIV versus Briggs' salt mixture). Among the rats maintained on the deficient diets for 6 weeks, only that received the combination of Briggs' salt mixture showed a significantly lower level of hepatic catalase activity, cytochrome P-450, and b₅ compared to the corresponding control animals. Since the most striking differences in these diets are in their contest of iron, it appears that these two dietary constituents may intact in modulating the effect of vitamin E on hepatic hemoproteins.