ABSTRACT
Vitamin E was discovered at the University of California at Berkeley in 1922 in the laboratory of Herbert M. Evans. The designation of vitamin E status came about as a result of the discovery of natural deficiencies in vitamin E, mainly diseases of young children or young animals. Several vitamin E deficiency diseases mainly affecting newborns or young babies were discovered. Numerous physiological and pathological changes are observed when vitamin E is deficient in experimental animals and in humans. Normal vitamin E concentrations in natural membranes are too low to provide a detectable tocopheroxyl radical ESR signal. Dihydrolipoic acid was able to maintain ascorbate in its reduced form by regenerating it from dehydroascorbate and semidehydroascorbate in both liposomes and low-density lipoproteins.
