Abstract
The roles of vitamin C on secondary pathological changes after spinal cord injury were investigated by evaluating the effects of dietary vitamin C on experimental spinal cord injury in a mutant strain of Wistar rats unable to synthesize ascorbic acid (ODS rats). Two groups of ODS rats were given vitamin C-deficient or vitamin C-supplemented diet for 1 week before injury. Motor disturbance induced by spinal cord injury was found to be greater in the vitamin C-deficient group. Histologically, the area of bleeding in the spinal cord was also greater in the vitamin C-deficient group. The levels of ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol in the spinal cord tissue and serum decreased during and after compression injury of the spinal cord. The decrease of α-tocopherol was similar in the two groups. However, the decrease of ascorbic acid was greater in the vitamin C-supplemented group. These results indicated that their protective effects against spinal cord injury are through scavenging water-soluble free radicals by vitamin C and lipid-soluble by vitamin E, and the effects of these vitamins were suggested to be independent
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Katoh, D., Ikata, T., Katoh, S. et al. Effect of dietary vitamin C on compression injury of the spinal cord in a rat mutant unable to synthesize ascorbic acid and its correlation with that of vitamin E. Spinal Cord 34, 234–238 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1996.43
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1996.43
