Dietary vitamin E protects the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas, against noise exposure [An article from: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C]

This digital document is a journal article from Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) was employed to examine if dietary vitamin E supplementation could protect the inner ear from the deleterious effects of noise. Fish were fed one of the three experimental diets containing either: (1) low vitamin E content (14.5 mg/kg diet as @a-tocopheryl acetate), (2) an adequate amount of vitamin E (50 mg/kg), or (3) high vitamin E content (450 mg/kg). After 4 weeks on the diet, fish were exposed to either 2 or 24 h of intense white noise (142 dB re: 1 @mPa, bandwidth 0.3-4.0 kHz). Auditory thresholds were measured, using the auditory brainstem response (ABR) technique, within 0.5 days following noise exposure or within a recovery period of 1.5 days. Additionally, liver samples were analyzed for vitamin E content. Increased vitamin E supplementation was dose-dependently associated with a reduction in statistically significant threshold shifts after noise exposure and an enhancement of recovery (i.e., more complete recovery over a shorter period) for fish exposed to either 2 or 24 h of noise. The results obtained suggest that dietary vitamin E affords protection against noise exposure in a cyprinid fish.