Effect of age, culture medium and lymphocyte presence on ascorbate content of peritoneal macrophages from mice and guinea pigs during phagocytosis.

Changes in ascorbate content have been measured by high-performance liquid chromatography in peritoneal macrophages from mice and guinea pigs stimulated by latex particles, in the presence and absence of peritoneal lymphocytes. There was a significant decrease in ascorbate content in murine macrophages 5 min after stimulation that did not occur in controls. The rate of ascorbate consumption was nearly identical with murine macrophages incubated in three different ascorbate-free culture media (phosphate-buffered saline, Hanks' solution and RPMI) studied, as well as with macrophages from young and old mice. In contrast to mice, both control and stimulated peritoneal macrophages from guinea pigs showed significant decreased contents of ascorbate in the absence of lymphocytes compared with those in the presence of lymphocytes. Moreover, stimulated macrophages showed significantly decreased ascorbate contents with respect to controls. These results indicate that ascorbic acid plays an important role in macrophages and that peritoneal lymphocytes also seem to play a significant role in the maintenance of ascorbate content in macrophages during phagocytosis in guinea pigs.