Profiling of human cytokines in healthy individuals with vitamin E supplementation by antibody array

Previously, we demonstrated that vitamin E supplementation decreases autoantibodies to oxidized lipid-protein complexes (J. Med. Food 1 (2000) 247). Utilizing an in vitro modeling system, we also demonstrated that vitamin E blocks the tumor promotion process in liver epithelial cells (Carcinogenesis 20 (1999) 485 and Mol. Carcinog. 30 (2001) 209). To investigate the molecular mechanisms of vitamin E function, we developed a human cytokine array system that is capable of detecting the expression of 35 cytokines simultaneously. Using this new technology, we analyzed the potential vitamin E-regulated cytokines in vitamin E supplementation individuals. The cytokine arrays showed that expression of several cytokines, particularly monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), was profoundly reduced in vitamin E supplementation individuals. Moreover, addition of vitamin E to several cultured cells significantly down-regulated the expression of MCP-1. Our results suggested that MCP-1 may be one of the most important targets of antioxidant vitamin E. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the down-regulation of MCP-1 in vitamin E supplementation in vivo.