Antioxidant Vitamins and Their Use in Preventing Cardiovascular Disease

Molecules

Dan Farbstein¹  Adena Kozak-Blickstein¹ 

[1] Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

关键词: vitamin E;    antioxidants;    vitamin C;    atherosclerosis;    CVD;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules15118098

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Atherosclerosis remains one of the leading causes of death in Western populations. Subsequent to the discovery that oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of atherosclerosis, vitamins C and E, along with other antioxidants, were studied as potential therapies for the disease. However, while in vitro and in vivo studies showed promising antiatherogenic effects for vitamins C and E, clinical trials in which patients were given high doses of vitamin E or C showed no benefit and even possible harm. This review will attempt to summarize the known mechanistic data regarding the biochemical effects of vitamins C and E and their relevance to atherosclerosis, and offer an explanation for the failure of clinical trials to show that supplementation with these vitamins provides any benefit when given indiscriminately. We provide one example of how pharmacogenomics may be used to identify a sub-population which may indeed benefit from antioxidant supplementation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.