Comparison of ascorbic acid concentrations in granulocytes and lymphocytes.

The author measured the ascorbic acid concentration (microgram/10(8) cells) in leukocytes from fourteen healthy male subjects aged 20 to 28 years. The mean values were 10.9 (range 3.7 to 15.8) in granulocytes and 88.5 (range 35.3 to 122.2) in lymphocytes. These findings suggest that ascorbic acid metabolism in lymphocytes differs from that in granulocytes. In the second experiments the changes in ascorbic acid concentrations were measured in the course of an ascorbic acid loading test to a 33-year-old healthy male volunteer, in which increasing doses (1, 3, 5, 10 g/day X 7 days) were weekly loaded for 4 successive weeks and the ascorbic acid concentrations were examined at the end of each week. As the loading dose increased, ascorbic acid concentration in lymphocytes decreased during the 4 week period while the counterpart value in granulocytes stayed essentially constant. The present findings suggest the differences in ascorbic acid metabolism between granulocytes and lymphocytes.