The effects of vitamin E and indomethacin on blood creatine phosphokinase and fatty acid composition of tissues from young rabbits

Male weanling white rabbits were fed a vitamin E deficient diet to examine the effects of vitamin E depletion and repletion and indomethacin treatment on blood creatine-phosphokinase (CPK) and fatty acid composition in phospholipids. Elevation of CPK was detected in the vitamin E deficient animals as early as the tenth day on the diet. Two groups of animals were treated with indomethacin and had higher CPD readings than those not receiving it. When vitamin E was reintroduced, CPK values returned to control level within five days. Indomethacin failed to prevent myopathy in the vitamin E deficient rabbits, suggesting that either prostaglandin synthesis was not affected by the dosage used, or that prostaglandin synthesis is not directly involved in the etiology of nutritional muscular dystrophy