The ascorbate content of plants is usually increased in high light (HL), implying a function for ascorbate in the acclimation of plants to HL. Nevertheless, the importance of ascorbate in HL acclimation has not yet been tested directly. Here, we report on the acclimation process of an ascorbate-deficient Arabidopsis mutant to HL. The mutant vtc2 has only 10% to 30% of wild-type levels of ascorb...

Ascorbic acid deficiency causes qualitative and quantitative differences in the guinea pig hepatic flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO). Kinetic studies with purified FMO indicated no significant change in the apparent Km of dimethylaniline or NADPH in ascorbate-supplemented or -deficient animals. Following purification of ascorbate-deficient guinea pig FMO by DEAE-cellulose and blue agarose c...

Sepsis causes brain dysfunction. Because neurotransmission requires high ascorbate and low dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA) concentrations in brain extracellular fluid, the effect of septic insult on ascorbate recycling (i.e., uptake and reduction of DHAA) and export was investigated in primary rat and mouse astrocytes. DHAA raised intracellular ascorbate to physiological levels but extracellular as...

The action of ascorbate free radical as an electron acceptor to cytochrome b-mediated trans-plasma membrane electron transport is demonstrated. Addition of ascorbate free radical to ascorbate-loaded plasma membrane vesicles caused a rapid oxidation of the cytochrome, followed by a slower re-reduction. The fully reduced dehydroascorbate was ineffective.

Plasma membranes isolated from wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae crude membrane fractions catalyzed NADH oxidation using a variety of electron acceptors, such as ferricyanide, cytochrome c, and ascorbate free radical. Plasma membranes from the deletion mutant strain coq3delta, defective in coenzyme Q (ubiquinone) biosynthesis, were completely devoid of coenzyme Q6 and contained greatly diminis...

Until now therapeutic concepts for human cardiovascular disease (CVD) were targeting individual pathomechanisms or specific risk factors. On the basis of genetic, metabolic, evolutionary, and clinical evidence we present here a unified pathogenetic and therapeutic approach. Ascorbate deficiency is the precondition and common denominator of human CVD. Ascorbate deficiency is the result of the in...

Acrolein modification of apolipoprotein (apo) E in human very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) was suppressed by ascorbate. Acrolein-modified apoE in VLDL was not taken up by human hepatoma cell whereas unmodified apoE in the presence of ascorbate was taken up. These results suggest that ascorbate can play an important role in maintaining proper lipoprotein metabolism by the antioxidant effect.

Background: Ascorbate biosynthesis in plants occurs mainly via the L-galactose pathway. Results: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii VTC2 encodes a GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase whose transcript levels are induced in response to oxidative stress concurrent with increased ascorbate accumulation. Conclusion: Increased oxidative stress in C. reinhardtii results in an enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant r...

Pretreatment of a serum or plasma sample with ascorbate oxidase removed interfering ascorbate and allowed the determination of cholesterol to be carried out by a current enzymatic cholesterol method available in kit form. The Cobas-Fara was programmed to carry out pretreatment of the sample with ascorbate oxidase before addition of the cholesterol colour reagent.

Dehydroascorbate and traces of ascorbate were present apoplastically in living spruce (Picea abies) twigs. Since the proposed apoplastic ascorbate degradation pathway contains several steps that possibly generate H(2)O(2), the effects of ascorbate and some of its degradation products were tested on apoplastic H(2)O(2) concentrations in a cell culture of P. abies as a model and on non-enzymic H(...