Vitamin E supplementation improves endothelial function in type I diabetes mellitus: A randomized, placebo-controlled study

Abstract

Objectives. We sought to determine, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study, whether vitamin E supplementation (1,000 IU for three months) would improve impaired conduit and resistance vessel endothelial vasodilator function (EVF) and systemic arterial compliance (SAC) in type I diabetes mellitus (DM). Background. Oxidative stress is thought to be important in the pathogenesis of impaired EVF. Consistent with this hypothesis, we have recently shown that impaired EVF is related to low density lipoprotein (LDL) vitamin E content (VEC) in young subjects with type 1 DM. Methods. We assessed EVF in the brachial artery (using noninvasive ultrasound, flow-mediated vasodilation [FMD]..