Beneficial effects of vitamin E on radioiodine induced gastrointestinal damage: an experimental and pathomorphological study.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to investigate the radioprotective effect of vitamin E in the prevention of radioiodine (RAI) induced gastrointestinal damage. METHOD Twenty-four rats were randomly divided into three groups as follows: Group-1 was untreated control group, Group-2 was orally administered single dose of 111 MBq RAI, and Group-3 was orally administered 111 MBq RAI and 1 mL of oral vitamin E. Vitamin E was started two days before RAI administration and was continued for five days once daily after RAI. Pathomorphological parameters of gastrointestinal tissues (stomach, small intestines and bowels) were measured using Hematoxylin-Eosin and Masson's trichrome staining. RESULTS Varying degrees of inflammation, edema, ulcer, mucosal degeneration, necrosis and fibrosis were seen in the stomach, small intestine and bowel tissues of the rats in both study groups and not in the control group. The differences were statistically significant between these groups for all parameters (p < 0.05). The histopathological damage in the vitamin E treated group was significantly less than the damage in the RAI only group (p < 0.05 for all pathomorphological parameters). CONCLUSION The results of this study showed that vitamin E has a radioprotective property with antiinflammatory and antifibrotic effects protecting against gastrointestinal damage caused by radioiodine (Tab. 3, Fig. 3, Ref. 26).