Xu Yichen, Zheng Huabo, Slabu Ioana, Liehn Elisa Anamaria, Rusu Mihaela
Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, School of Basic Medicine and Life Sciences, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.
Department of Cardiology, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou 350001, China.
Antioxidants (Basel). 2025 Apr 23;14(5):506. doi: 10.3390/antiox14050506.
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient that humans cannot synthesize, making its intake crucial for health. Discovered nearly a century ago, vitamin C is widely recognized for its ability to prevent scurvy and has become one of the most commonly used supplements. Beyond its antioxidant activity, vitamin C is pivotal in regulating lipid metabolism, promoting angiogenesis, enhancing collagen synthesis, modulating remodeling, and stabilizing the extracellular matrix. While preclinical studies have shown promising results, clinical trials have yielded inconsistent findings, due to suboptimal study design, results misinterpretation, and misleading conclusions. This review provides a holistic overview of existing evidence on the pleiotropic role of vitamin C in cardiovascular diseases, identifying both the strengths and limitations of current research and highlighting gaps in understandings in vitamin C's underlying mechanisms. By integrating molecular insights with clinical data and evaluating the pleiotropic role of vitamin C in cardiovascular disease management and prevention, this review aims to guide future research toward personalized, evidence-based therapeutic strategies in clinical practice.
维生素C，又称抗坏血酸，是一种人体无法合成的必需营养素，因此摄入维生素C对健康至关重要。大约一个世纪前发现的维生素C，因其预防坏血病的能力而被广泛认可，并已成为最常用的补充剂之一。除了具有抗氧化活性外，维生素C在调节脂质代谢、促进血管生成、增强胶原蛋白合成、调节重塑以及稳定细胞外基质方面也起着关键作用。虽然临床前研究显示出了有前景的结果，但由于研究设计欠佳、结果解读错误以及结论具有误导性，临床试验得出的结果并不一致。本综述全面概述了关于维生素C在心血管疾病中多效性作用的现有证据，确定了当前研究的优势和局限性，并突出了在维生素C潜在机制理解方面的差距。通过将分子见解与临床数据相结合，并评估维生素C在心血管疾病管理和预防中的多效性作用，本综述旨在指导未来的研究朝着临床实践中个性化、基于证据的治疗策略发展。
