Antiscorbutic effect of dehydro-L-ascorbic acid in vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs.

The antiscorbutic effect of dehydro-L-ascorbic acid (DAsA) was investigated in vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs. Male guinea pigs were fed vitamin C-deficient diets for 16 days to deplete body L-ascorbic acid (AsA) pools and then fed the deficient diet supplemented with DHA and/or AsA intraperitoneally for 14 days. During the repletion period, most of the animals injected with 0.5 mg DAsA/day developed scurvy, their body weights decreased and their mortality rate was higher than that of the other groups injected with 0.5 mg AsA/day or 5 mg DAsA/day. Injecting animals with 0.5 mg AsA/day resulted in the disappearance of the typical scorbutic symptoms and regaining of body weight. These data indicate that DAsA has considerably less antiscorbutic activity than AsA in vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs.