Abstract
Effects of hypovitamin C on lipid contents in serum, aorta and liver were studied. Guinea pigs were made hypovitamin C by scorbutogenic diet (group 1) or cholesterol added scorbutogenic diet (group 3) for two weeks. The control for the experimental animal was fed with the similar diet and supplemented with 25mg of vitamin C daily (group 2 and 4).
Total lipids in the serum, liver and aorta were estimated with conventional methods desceribed elsewhere. Serum lipoprotein were divided into high density lipoprotein (HDL) fraction, and low plus very low density lipoprotein (LDL+VLDL) fraction with Burstein's heparin sedimentation method. Lipid constituents in the two lipoprotein fractions were separated with thin layer chromatography following the method of Stahl, and determined lipid content of the each subfraction by densitometry.
Serum lipids of group 1 were significantly elevated as compared with the control. An increase of cholesterol and phospholipids observed in group 3 was partially prevented by vitamin C administration (group 4) as shown in Fig. 1. There was no statistical difference of lipid content in both HDL and LDL+VLDL fraction between group 1 and 2. Significant decrease of all of the lipid constituents in HDL and an increase of total lipids, free cholesterol, triglyceride in LDL+VLDL were observed in cholestrol fed hypovitamin C (group 3) animals as shown in Fig. 2. The content of lipid in the aorta was also elevated in group 3 (see Fig. 3), while slight decrease of hepatic lipid content were observed in group 3 (Fig. 4).
These findings suggest that vitamin C plays an important role of lipoprotein metabolism. High dose of cholesterol intake and existance of hypovitamin C may induces an increase of LDL+VLDL, and promote lipid deposition in the aorta and finally enhance the progress of aherosclerosis.
