Journal of Nutrition LabDiet, Your World of Nutritional Answers

Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Morehouse, A. L.
Right arrow Articles by Guerrant, N. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Morehouse, A. L.
Right arrow Articles by Guerrant, N. B.

Influence of Age and of Sex of the Albino Rat on Hepatic Ascorbic Acid1

Three Figures

A. L. Morehouse2 and N. B. Guerrant

Department of Agricultural and Biological Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State College, State College

A study has been made of the influence of the age and of the sex of the albino rat on the hepatic content of ascorbic acid. These studies involved measurement of the ascorbic acid in the livers of male and female rats of various ages, ranging from suckling young to mature rats 42 weeks of age, while they were being maintained on a commercial breeding ration. The present investigation also includes a study of the effect of pregnancy and lactation on hepatic ascorbic acid. The results of these studies may be summarized as follows:

1. A two-fold increase in the hepatic concentration of ascorbic acid occurred during the first three weeks of extrauterine life. This early increase in ascorbic acid concentration was followed by a rapid decrease during the 4th week of life and may have been associated with the weaning of the rat.
2. The concentration of hepatic ascorbic acid in rats over 8 weeks of ag remained relatively constant, although a measurable gradual decrease in concentration of the vitamin was observed in the livers of both sexes up to 42 weeks of age.
3. With rats exceeding 6 weeks of age a distinct sex difference in the hepatic concentration of ascorbic acid was observed, the concentration of the vitamin being significantly higher in the livers of the males. Although food intakes usually were higher for male rats, no definite evidence was obtained to show that the sex difference in hepatic concentrations of the vitamin can be attributed to differences in food intake.
4. The occurrence of a sex difference in the ascorbic acid content of the blood plasma of rats was confirmed in the present studies.
5. The concentration of ascorbic acid in the livers of pregnant female rats was observed to increase progressively as pregnancy advanced, reaching a concentration just before parturition that was 75% higher than that of the non-pregnant female. The hepatic concentration of the vitamin decreased gradually following parturition, and by the end of the lactation period had returned to the normal level of the non-pregnant female.

1 Authorized for publication on December 31, 1951, as paper 1715 in the Journal Series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station.

2 Formerly Procter and Gamble Research Fellow, now associated with the Grain Processing Corporation, Muscatine, Iowa.

Manuscript received 10 January 1952.




Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Copyright © 1952 by American Society for Nutrition