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Biochemical and Molecular Actions of Nutrients

Vitamin C Deficiency Exerts Paradoxical Cardiovascular Effects in Osteogenic Disorder Shionogi (ODS) Rats¹

Laboratoire de Physiopathologie et Pharmacologie Cardio-vasculaires Expérimentales, IFR n°100, Facultés de Médecine et Pharmacie, 21000 Dijon, France

²To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: catherine.vergely{at}u-bourgogne.fr.

Vitamin C is considered to be a very efficient water-soluble antioxidant, for which several new cardiovascular properties were recently described. The aim of this study was to determine in vivo the effects of a severe depletion of vitamin C on cardiac and vascular variables and reperfusion arrhythmias. For this purpose, we used a mutant strain of Wistar rats, osteogenic disorder Shionogi (ODS). After 15 d of consuming a vitamin C–deficient diet, ODS rats had a 90% decrease in plasma and tissue levels of ascorbate compared with ODS vitamin C–supplemented rats and normal Wistar rats. However, plasma antioxidant capacity, proteins, -tocopherol, urate, catecholamines, lipids, and nitrate were not influenced by the vitamin C deficiency in ODS rats. Moreover, there was no difference between ODS vitamin C–deficient and –supplemented rats in heart rate and arterial pressure. After 5 min of an in vivo regional myocardial ischemia, various severe arrhythmias were observed, but their intensities were not modified by vitamin C in vitamin C–deficient ODS rats. The vascular reactivity, measured in vitro on thoracic arteries, was not altered by ascorbate deficiency in ODS rats. These unexpected results suggest that unidentified compensatory mechanisms play a role in maintaining normal cardiac function and vascular reactivity in vitamin C–deficient rats.

KEY WORDS: • ascorbic acid • myocardial ischemia-reperfusion • arrhythmia • oxidative stress • ODS rats