ABSTRACT
Eighty years ago vitamin E was discovered to be an essential micronutrient by Evans and Bishop (1). With the later recognition that this vitamin is not only necessary for successful reproduction but also the major lipophilic antioxidant in the human body, and subsequently, the causative role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of agerelated and common chronic diseases, intense research has been conducted to evaluate the possible protective and curative potential of vitamin E. In the meantime, several other specific biological functions of vitamin E have been revealed apart from its antioxidant function including modulation of cell signaling [e.g., protein kinase C (PKC) inhibition], gene expression, and cell proliferation. Nonetheless, there are still many gaps in understanding the physiologic role of vitamin E in humans. Except in the case of nutrient deficiency, not much is clearly proven about the functional importance of vitamin E for human health and disease prevention. The following introduction provides a brief overview of the known biological functions of vitamin E, focusing on α-tocopherol as the major form of vitamin E in the human body, and highlights some milestones in the past eight decades of vitamin E research.
