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Influence of Vitamin C Restriction on Guinea Pig Adrenal Calcium and Plasma Corticosteroids¹

Department of Food and Nutrition, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306

Some aspects of adrenocortical function were investigated in young male guinea pigs fed an ascorbic acid (AsA)-deficient diet for 7 days, followed by 0.1 mg AsA/100 g body weight/day for 4 days; pair-fed guinea pigs served as controls. Ninety minutes prior to killing, all guinea pigs received either an adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or saline injection, and 30 minutes prior to killing, all were injected with 20 µCi ⁴⁵Ca/100 g body weight intraperitoneally. AsA restriction alone caused an 89% reduction in adrenal AsA concentration, but growth rate, adrenal weight and plasma ACTH were not different from those of pair-fed controls. Adrenal radiocalcium uptake, adrenal calcium content and plasma corticosteroids were similar in saline-treated guinea pigs restricted in AsA and the ACTH-treated controls, all of which were significantly higher than the values observed in saline-injected controls. Similar responses of the ACTH-treated controls and the saline-treated mildly deficient guinea pigs indicated that, at the adrenal AsA levels achieved (4.45 to 7.02 mg/100 g tissue), adrenal calcium and plasma corticosteroids increased significantly without the mediation of ACTH.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin C. • adrenal calcium • plasma ACTH • plasma corticosteroids

¹ Supported in part by the Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Home Economics, Florida State University, and in part by a Sigma Xi grants-in-aid of research.

² Present address: Nutrition Division, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33152. Submitted in partial fulfillment for the doctoral degree, Florida State University. Presented in part at the 60th Annual FASEB meeting in Anaheim, California, April 1976.

Manuscript received 28 February 1977.