Pharmacological potential of tocotrienols: a review

Ahsan, Haseeb; Ahad, Amjid; Iqbal, Jahangir; Siddiqui, Waseem A

doi:10.1186/1743-7075-11-52

Nutrition & Metabolism

Table 2 Biological properties of tocotrienols

From: Pharmacological potential of tocotrienols: a review

S.No.	Protective activity	Tocotrienol type	Proposed mechanism of action	References
1.	Anti-cancer	γ-T₃	Inhibition of NF-κB, TGF-β and P38 signalling pathways	[8, 143]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Induction and potentiation of apoptosis	[20, 22, 31, 144, 145]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Activation of caspases	[31, 34, 61, 145, 146]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Down-regulation of Bcl-2 and cyclin D	[61]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃	Suppression of HMGR activity	[44]
		TRF from palm oil	Induction of DNA fragmentation	[18]
		α-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of angiogenesis	[55]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of cell proliferation through cell cycle arrest	[25, 33]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Down-regulation of Raf/Erk pathway	[27]
2.	Anti-diabetic	TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil	Prevents the formation of advanced glycationendproducts in diabetic rats	[72]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Reduces hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia in diabetic rats	[73]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of NF-κB signalling pathway	[75]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of oxidative-nitrosative stress	[120]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of TNF-α, IL-1β, TGF-β1 and caspase-3 activity	[74, 77]
		TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil	Reduction of glucose-insulin index	[79, 80]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Increase in insulin sensitivity	[59, 81, 83]
3.	Anti-inflammatory	α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Suppression of NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-1, IL-6, IL-8 and iNOS	[50, 56, 74, 147]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Suppression of cyclooxygenase-2 activity	[51, 57]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Suppression of STAT-3 signalling pathway	[29, 45]
4.	Antioxidant	α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes	[59, 60, 62, 65, 148]
		TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil, α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Quenching and scavenging of free radicals	[63, 69, 70, 79]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Inhibition of lipid peroxidation	[64, 66, 68]
5.	Immuno-stimulatory	α-T₃, δ-T₃	Induction of antibody production	[99, 101]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Induction of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-1β production	[99, 102]
		δ-T₃	Suppression of TNF-α	[102]
6.	Cardio-protective	α-T₃, γ-T₃	Inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase activity	[10, 86, 104]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃	Inhibition of expression of cell adhesion molecules	[105]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃	Reduction in the levels of blood cholesterol	[106, 107]
		TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil, δ-T₃	Inhibition of lipid peroxidation	[41, 80]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Downregulation of c-Src expression	[102]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Upregulation of phosphorylation of Akt	[102]
		TRF from palm oil	Reduction in the production of apolipoprotein B, platelet derived factor-4, thromboxane B2	[149]
		TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil	Downregulation of TGF-β	[80]
7.	Neuro-protective	α-T₃	Inhibition of PP 60 (c-Src) kinase activity and phosphorylation of Erk	[112]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃	Inhibition of 12-lipoxygenase activity	[115, 116]
		α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Reduction of oxidative stress	[77]
8.	Hepato-protective	α-T₃, γ-T₃	Inhibition of lipid peroxidation and oxidative damage	[62, 64, 65, 68]
		γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Induction of the expression of CYP450, UGT1A1 nad MDR-protein 1	[135, 136]
		TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil, α-T₃, γ-T₃, δ-T₃	Induction of hepatic antioxidant status	[59, 137, 138]
9.	Nephro-protective	TRF from rice bran oil, α-T₃, γ-T₃	Inhibition of oxidative-nitrosative stress	[12, 136, 141]
9.	Nephro-protective	TRF from palm oil and rice bran oil, α-T₃, γ-T₃	Downregulating the expression of NF-κB, TGF-β, TNF-α and caspase-3	[75, 79, 80, 136, 139]

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