Ascorbate, as a strong and active antioxidant, plays an important role in keeping human health. It helps promote iron absorption, increase antibody concentration and improve human immunity. Ascorbate is used to regenerate a-tocopherol (vitamin E), and remove radicals which could induce cancer and senescence. Ascorbate is beneficial to strengthen blood vessel and decrease cholesterol concentrati...

In an attempt to decrease ascorbate interference on the ion-chromatographic determination of urinary oxalate, we compared the effectiveness of four different methods for ascorbate elimination by analyzing a representative urine pool supplemented with successive ascorbate additions. Two of the methods--treatment with ferric ions or boric acid--have been described elsewhere; treatments with nitri...

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) governs cellular adaption to the hypoxic microenvironment and is associated with a proliferative, metastatic, and treatment-resistant tumor phenotype. HIF-1 levels and transcriptional activity are regulated by proline and asparagine hydroxylases, which require ascorbate as cofactor. Ascorbate supplementation reduced HIF-1 activation in vitro, but only limited ...

Ascorbate is an antioxidant and coenzyme for various metabolic reactions in vivo. In plant chloroplasts, high ascorbate levels are required to overcome photoinhibition caused by strong light. However, ascorbate is synthesized in the mitochondria and the molecular mechanisms underlying ascorbate transport into chloroplasts are unknown. Here we show that AtPHT4;4, a member of the phosphate transp...

Vitamin C (ascorbate) plays numerous important roles in cellular metabolism, many of which have only come to light in recent years. For instance, within the brain, ascorbate acts in a neuroprotective and neuromodulatory manner that involves ascorbate cycling between neurons and vicinal astrocytes--a relationship that appears to be crucial for brain ascorbate homeostasis. Additionally, emerging ...

Ascorbate (vitamin C) was an early, unorthodox therapy for cancer, with an outstanding safety profile and anecdotal clinical benefit. Because oral ascorbate was ineffective in two cancer clinical trials, ascorbate was abandoned by conventional oncology but continued to be used in complementary and alternative medicine. Recent studies provide rationale for reexamining ascorbate treatment. Becaus...

The ability of structural analogues of ascorbate to serve as substitutes for this reducing agent in the prolyl 4-hydroxylase reaction was studied. In experiments using the purified enzyme, variations of the compounds' side chain were compatible with co-substrate activity. The presence of very large hydrophobic substituents or a positively charged group caused an increase in the observed Km valu...

PURPOSE Pharmacologic concentrations of ascorbate may be effective in cancer therapeutics. We hypothesized that ascorbate concentrations achievable with i.v. dosing would be cytotoxic in pancreatic cancer for which the 5-year survival is <3%. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Pancreatic cancer cell lines were treated with ascorbate (0, 5, or 10 mmol/L) for 1 hour, then viability and clonogenic survival wer...

Levels of the necessary nutrient vitamin C (ascorbate) are tightly regulated by intestinal absorption, tissue accumulation, and renal reabsorption and excretion. Ascorbate levels are controlled in part by regulation of transport through at least 2 sodium-dependent transporters: Slc23a1 and Slc23a2 (also known as Svct1 and Svct2, respectively). Previous work indicates that Slc23a2 is essential f...

Septic patients have low plasma ascorbate concentrations and compromised microvascular perfusion. The purpose of the present experiments was to determine whether ascorbate improves capillary function in volume-resuscitated sepsis. Cecal ligation and perforation (CLP) was performed on male Sprague-Dawley rats. The concentration of ascorbate in plasma and urine, mean arterial blood pressure, and ...