Since brain is particularly susceptible to oxidative damage (Oi et al., 2002) and has the lowest antioxidant enzyme activities among all tissues (Mezes et al., 1997), the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal diets added with different levels of the antioxidant vitamin E on the embryonic stage, oxidative status and antioxidant abilities in the neonatal brains in relation to its early brain development during postnatal period