Comparative Studies of Ascorbic Acid Levels in Gastric Secretion and Blood

Abstract

Many features of digestion are subject to standard evaluation by quantitative determination of constituents of gastric juice. The extension of scope of such measurements may aid in study of metabolic patterns. The ascorbic acid content of gastric secretion, for example, may be a link in chain of systemic processes in which gastroduodenal lesion is one of several possible pathologic conditions. In initial study it was suggested that the secretion of ascorbic acid by gastric mucosa is a physiologic property of its cells.l In a control group consisting of about 100 medical and nursing students of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, average fasting blood ascorbic acid concentration was 0.98 mg. per cent and 1.05 mg. per cent in gastric juice; blood levels and urinary output were proportional to intake, whereas salivary and gastric levels were not. In a second study direct relation between intake, blood level, and renal excretion of vitamin was confirmed. Gastric and salivary concentrations were assumed to be measures of parenchymal cell metabolism of vitamin. Such figures reflected a property of ascorbic acid metabolism as a characteristic of cells not necessarily dependent on intake and output directly if minimum requirements are met. The distinction was clarified by an oral saturation test.2 After vitamin C saturation was effected, blood vitamin C levels rose an average of 81 per cent. Urine output increased 1800 per cent. On other hand, average gastric juice concentration rose only 11 per cent and salivary concentration was unchanged. When there is a normal ascorbic acid intake in a balanced diet and normal cell function, secretory and excretory levels of vitamin depend on systemic as well as local influences. Blood levels and body reserves of cholesterol, calcium, protein, potassium, phosphates and other substances may be involved in same mechanisms by which ascorbic acid blood levels and body reserves are controlled.