American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 12, 374-379, Copyright © 1963 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Vitamin E Responsive Megaloblastic Anemia in Infants with Protein-Calorie Malnutrition

¹ From the Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem, Jordan; Division of Nutrition, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Department of Biochemistry, University of Arkansas Medical Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; and Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Treatment with vitamin E has been shown to induce a favorable hematologic response in malnourished infants with macrocytic anemia. These changes include typical therapeutic-induced increase in reticulocytes, followed by erythropoiesis and abatement of macrocythemia and conversion of megaloblastic marrow to a normoblastic one. There was a restoration to normal of urinary creatine: creatinine ratio and an increase in previously low serum vitamin E levels.

These findings suggest that this anemia may represent the counterpart in man of the anemia which occurs in tocopherol-deficient monkeys. They provide further support to the concept of closely interrelated metabolic functions of tocopherol, vitamin B₁₂ and folic acid.

It seems reasonable to believe that similar cases may be found elsewhere in regions in which protein-calorie malnutrition is common. The possibility of tocopherol deficiency may deserve further nutritional consideration than it has received in the past.

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