Effects of high level of vitamin C on tissue antioxidant status of guinea pigs.

Two groups of weanling male Hartley guinea pigs maintained on vitamin E deficient diet were supplemented with 0.4 I.U./100 g body weight/day of vitamin E and either 2 (Group A) or 10 (Group B) mg/100 g body weight/day of vitamin C for 5 weeks. As compared to Group A, the degree of erythrocyte hemolysis and liver TBAR level of Group B were significantly increased while plasma vitamin E and erythrocyte GSH levels were significantly decreased. In another experiment, two groups of guinea pigs were given 0.8 I.U./100 g body weight/day of vitamin E and 2 (Group C) or 30 mg/100 g body weight/day (Group D) of vitamin C. Levels of plasma vitamin E and erythrocyte GSH of Group D were significantly lower than those of Group C: however, erythrocyte hemolysis and liver TBAR were not affected by the level of vitamin C supplementation. The results suggest that the high levels of vitamin C supplementation lowered tissue antioxidant potential of animal when vitamin E was marginally adequate, and the hemolytic and peroxidizing effect of high level of vitamin C may be counteracted by increasing the level of vitamin E.