Serum vitamin E levels in children with human immunodeficiency virus infection in Lagos Nigeria

BackgroundVitamin E supplementation in many adult populations has been found to reduce the impact of oxidative stress from chronic diseases which include HIV infection. With paucity of data among the pediatric population, this study was conducted to determine the mean serum vitamin E levels and its associations with the immunologic status, the nutritional status and the use of highly active antiretroviral drugs (HAART) in children with HIV aged 6 weeks to 13 years.MethodsSeventy HIV-infected children (35 HIV-infected on HAART, 35 HIV-infected HAART-naive) and seventy age- and sex-matched HIV-uninfected children were recruited to the study. Social class, anthropometric measures, results of serum vitamin E (using HPLC), CD4 counts, and cholesterol levels were inputted into a pretested questionnaire.ResultsThe median (IQR) serum vitamin E levels among the children with HIV was 2.54 (1.55-5.27) mu mol/L which was higher than the controls 1.87 (1.63-2.88) mu mol/L, p = 0.03.There was a positive correlation between serum vitamin E levels and immunological status using CD4% (r = + 0.141, p = 0.53) and CD4 counts (r = + 0.017, p = 0.91) among the children with HIV. There was no significant association between serum vitamin E levels and nutritional status. The vitamin E levels were higher in the HAART-exposed children compared to the HAART-naive children but the difference was not significant p = 0.480 and p = 0.485 respectively.ConclusionThe children with HIV had higher serum vitamin E levels. Further research is needed to investigate possible reasons and implications for this including the role of the vitamin E carrier protein in HIV management.