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Plasma Ascorbic Acid Concentrations Are Related to Cardiovascular Risk Factors in African-Americans^1,2,3,

Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523

This study was undertaken to examine relationships among blood pressure, blood lipids, and plasma concentrations of ascorbic acid and malondialdehyde (MDA) equivalents (indicative of lipid peroxidation) in adult African-Americans. Subjects (n = 172, mean age = 48.0 y) were recruited from among the memberships of several Seventh-Day Adventist Churches. Plasma ascorbic acid and MDA equivalents were inversely correlated (r = -0.44, P < 0.0001). There were significant inverse correlations between plasma ascorbic acid levels and both systolic (r = -0.39, P < 0.0001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = -0.25, P < 0.03), and between plasma ascorbic acid and serum total cholesterol (r = -0.25, P < 0.03), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) (r = -0.33, P < 0.004), and the ratio of LDL-cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol (LDL-C/HDL-C) (r = -0.32, P < 0.004). Serum HDL-cholesterol was positively related to plasma ascorbic acid (r = 0.22, P < 0.05). The correlations for MDA equivalents and the blood pressure and blood lipid variables were of similar magnitude to those of plasma ascorbic acid, but were in the opposite direction. Multiple regression analysis revealed ascorbic acid to be a significant independent contributor to the prediction of blood pressure and LDL-C concentration. These data suggest that plasma concentrations of ascorbic acid and MDA equivalents are related to several cardiovascular risk indicators in black Americans.

KEY WORDS: • blacks • cholesterol • human • vitamin C • hypertension

¹ Presented in part at Experimental Biology 95, April 12, 1995, Atlanta, GA [Toohey, M. L., Melby, C. L. & Harris, M. A. (1995) Plasma ascorbic acid concentrations and cardiovascular risk factors in African Americans. FASEB J. 9: A177 (abs.)].

² Supported by a National Institutes of Health Biomedical Research Support Grant (BRSG) from Colorado State University, and by the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, Project #616 (CLM).

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 1 May 1995. Revision accepted 3 October 1995.