the inventors have discovered that the gamma - tocopherol form of vitamin e demonstrates significant therapeutic effectiveness in reducing the expression of madcam - 1 in murine colon endothelial cells . thus , an ibd patient treated in vivo with a therapeutically effective dose of γ - tocopherol would likewise demonstrate a reduction in madcam - 1 expression . this finding is surprising because prior use of gamma - tocopherol in ibd has been limited to its use as a general antioxidant for reducing the number of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species formed in the ibd response and as a formulation co - agent for eliminating reactive species produced by an active therapeutic agent . examples include shapiro ( u . s . pat . no . 6 , 444 , 221 ) and guivarc &# 39 ; h et al ( u . s . ser . no . 2003 / 0013693 a1 ). as shown in fig2 , the inventors have found that gamma - tocopherol interferes with the ability of tnf - α to induce the expression of madcam possibly due to inhibition of nf - κb . the effectiveness of gamma - tocopherol in reducing madcam - 1 expression in ibd is even further surprising due to the fact that the delivery of more prolifically used anti - oxidants such as alpha - tocopherol , coenzyme q 10 , and vitamin e tgps , showed a relatively minor effect in reducing the expression of madcam - 1 . the active agent of the present invention is not limited to gamma - tocopherol alone . the esters of gamma - tocopherol are also included . further , gamma - tocotrienol and the esters thereof are also included as suitable active agents in the present invention since their biological activity so closely mirrors that of gamma - tocopherol . examples of suitable esters of gamma - tocopherol and gamma - tocotrienol include the succinate esters , polyethylene glycol succinate esters , acetates , nicotinates , and phosphates , and combinations thereof . thus , the composition is referred to hereinafter as a “ gamma - t ” composition for convenience . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , the ibd patient is treated with a blend of gamma - t and a solubilizing amount of vitamin e tpgs . vitamin e tpgs is a water - soluble form of natural - source vitamin e prepared by esterifying d - alpha - tocopheryl acid succinate with polyethylene glycol 1000 . vitamin e tpgs is a well known compound having a chemical formula of c 33 o 5 h 54 ( ch 2 ch 2 o ) n , where “ n ” represents the number of polyethylene oxide moieties attached to the acid group of crystalline d - alpha tocopheryl acid succinate . as further shown in fig2 , while in vitro treatment of ibd endothelial cells with gamma - t alone was found to significantly decrease the expression of madcam - 1 and treatment with vitamin e tpgs alone was found to provide a relatively small effect , therapy using a blend of gamma - t and vitamin e tpgs was found to fully suppress the cytokine mediated responses . thus , the combination of gamma - t with vitamin e tpgs has a particularly synergistic relationship in ibd which provides an unexpectedly high degree of madcam - 1 suppression . it is a poignant aspect of the present invention that the gamma - t or gamma - t / tpgs blend action is not dependent upon the presence of any other bioactive compound for interfering with cytokine mediated expression of madcam in ibd . thus , the present gamma - t therapy is effective in the absence of an antibiotic , steroid , monoclonal antibody or other anti - inflammatory , or immune suppressing agent . the effective in vivo dosage of gamma - t for administration in the present invention is a daily oral dosage of about 500 to 15 , 000 mg gamma - t , preferably between 1 , 500 to about 5 , 000 mg gamma - t should be effective in reducing madcam - 1 expression . at such dosage levels , it is especially beneficial to employ the preferred embodiment of a blend of gamma - t and vitamin e tpgs since the combination is so more effective than gamma - t alone , thus requiring a smaller amount of total vitamin e . thus , the therapy is beneficial in treating both chronic and acute ibd conditions . in the present invention , the gamma - t composition may be administered by any effective route including orally , intravenously , or rectally . oral dosage forms include aqueous emulsions , gelatin capsules , and tablets . the gamma - t composition is formed by melt blending gamma - t with a suitable carrier or solubilizer via commonly known methods . vitamin e tpgs is the preferred solubilizer in this invention due to the synergistic therapeutic effect . however , other well known pharmaceutically acceptable solubilizers can be used as carrier for gamma - t in the present invention . melt blending techniques are well known in the industry . other compounds may be incorporated into the gamma - t composition to provide dietary supplement benefit , antioxidant benefit , anti - inflammatory benefit , and the like . examples of other compounds useful in the present gamma - t composition include coenzyme q 10 , other natural and synthetic homologs of vitamin e and esters thereof , vitamin c , zinc , and selenium . monoclonal antibody compounds , antibiotics , immunosuppressants , and steroidal compounds can also be combined with the gamma - t and gamma - t / tpgs composition . up to about 25 weight percent of the composition of the present invention can be such other therapeutically active compounds . however , the predominant component of the composition is gamma - t and vitamin e tpgs . the composition of the present invention comprises gamma - t and a solubilizing amount of vitamin e tpgs . the concentration of the blend is between about 10 to 70 weight percent gamma - t , from 30 to about 90 weight percent vitamin e tpgs , and from 0 to about 25 weight percent other therapeutically active compounds . the preferred embodiment includes between about 30 to about 60 weight percent gamma - t and between about 40 to about 70 weight percent vitamin e tpgs , with a presence of no more than 15 weight percent other active compounds being most preferred . it should be understood that the composition of the present invention can be combined with other non - bioactive ingredients in formulating a dosage form . formulation components such as granulation aids , binders , flow agents , colorants , preservatives and fillers are examples of such non - active formulation ingredients . while the present invention has been primarily directed to the treatment of ibd , other chronic and acute disease states and conditions brought about by the immunoregulatory production of tnf - α or inhibition of nf - κb would also be treatable , at least to some extent , with the present gamma - t composition . this invention is further illustrated by the following examples of preferred embodiments thereof , although it will be understood that these examples are included merely for purposes of illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention unless otherwise specifically indicated . a line of murine colon microvessel endothelial cells was developed for use as an in vitro model of colon inflammatory adhesion molecule expression in ibd . immortomouse mice were used as tissue sources for these studies . colon segments were sterilely removed and treated with collagenase ( 0 . 2 %, 45 min ) and cultured in d - valine mem with ifn - g ( 10 u / ml ) with 2 % fcs and non - essential amino acids and vitamins . these cells were cultured on gelatin and were maintained at 37 c . for 24 hours prior to exposure to treatment protocols . in treatments , cells cultured on 24 well plates were incubated in either medium , or medium containing antioxidant or antioxidant admixture ± vitamin e tpgs for 24 - 48 hour prior to the administration of inflammatory cytokine ( tnf - α , 20 ng / ml ). at 24 hours combined treatments , monolayers were evaluated for madcam - 1 by standard western blotting . ec cells developed as above were cultured in 2 % fetal calf serum , with 50 u / ml interferon - gamma , d - valine supplemented mem , 1 % penicillin / streptomycin and 1 % non - essential amino acids using tissue culture were pre - coated with 1 % gelatin . adhesion molecule expression was measured in these cells by switching cells to medium without interferon , culturing for 48 hours and then pre - treating cells with test agents for 24 hours prior to exposure to tnf - α for an additional 24 hours . madcam - 1 expression was measured using standard western blotting procedures described above . one hundred μg of protein was loaded per lane in non - denaturing sample buffer ( w / o mercaptoethanol ) and electrophoresed , and subsequently transferred to nitrocellulose . after blocking ( 5 % milk , 2 h ), blots were incubated in madcam - 1 antibody ( 10 ug / ml ) for 12 hours and reacted by enhanced chemiluminescence ( ecl ). gels were analyzed by densitometric analysis by scanning x - ray replicas of the exposed blots . electrophoretic mobility shift assay ( emsa ): nf - κb binding activity was performed in a 15 μl binding mixture containing 1 × binding buffer ( 50 ug / ml of double - stranded poly ( dl - dc ), 10 mm tris - hcl ( ph 7 . 5 ), 50 mm nacl , 0 . 5 mm edta , 0 . 5 mm dtt , 1 mm mgcl2 , and 10 % glycerol ); 15 μg of nuclear proteins ; and 35 fmol ( 50 , 000 cpm , cherenkov counting ) of double - stranded nf - κb consensus oligonucleotide ( 5 ′- agt tga ggg gac ttt ccc agg c - 3 ′) end - labeled with [&# 39 ; g - 32p ] atp ( 3 , 000 ci / mmol at 10 mci / ml ; amersham , arlington heights , ill .) using t4 polynucleotide kinase ( promega ). the relative binding reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature for 20 minutes and analyzed by electro - phoresis on 5 % non - denaturing polyacrylamide gels . after electrophoresis , the gels were dried using a gel drier and exposed to kodak x - ray film (− 70 ° c .). the relative binding bands were analyzed by scanning densitometry on a bio - image analysis system ( millipore imaging system , ann arbor , mich .). a murine colon microvessel endothelial cell line ( ec monolayer ) was developed as described above . cytokine induced madcam - 1 expression in these cells was determined via western blot assay described above . an initial experiment evaluated the ability of gamma - tocopherol alone or formulated with vitamin e tpgs to block cytokine induction of madcam - 1 in this cell line is shown in fig2 . control ( untreated ) ec monolayers did not basally express madcam - 1 , while stimulation with tnf - α ( 20 ng / ml ) for 24 hours produced a robust increase in its expression . by comparison , gamma - tocopherol therapy produced a significant decrease in madcam - 1 expression ( reduced by at least 50 %), vitamin e tpgs therapy produced only a slight decrease in madcam - 1 expression , while therapy with a blend of gamma - tocopherol with vitamin e tpgs resulted in almost complete inhibition . therapy with alpha - tocopherol produced a decrease in madcam - 1 expression that was significantly less effective than gamma - tocopherol alone . however , the distinct synergistic improvement gained in the combination of gamma - tocopherol and vitamin e tpgs was not displayed with any other combination of vitamin e tpgs or gamma - tocopherol . coenzyme q 10 therapy was less beneficial than alpha - tocopherol therapy . these data clearly indicated that the formulation of gamma - tocopherol with vitamin e tpgs provides a superior protection against inflammation in ibd .
a method for reducing inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease is disclosed . the method comprises reducing the expression of endothelial cell adhesion molecules in the vasculature of the bowel wall by administering a therapeutic dosage of an effective amount of a blend of vitamin e tpgs and gamma - tocopherol . gamma - tocopherol is also useful when used alone in the invention . the reduction in endothelial cell adhesion molecules is due to the deactivation of endothelial nfκ - b by the composition .