Abstract
Normal and adrenalectomized rats were injected s.c. with 10 mg/kg cortisone, 10 mg/kg hydrocortisone, 5 mg/kg deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA), or 100 μg/kg aldosterone daily. The experiments were carried out at the end of fourth and eighth day of injection. Ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, and diketogulonic acid were determined in liver and urine, while only the total ascorbic acid was determined in blood. Activities of ascorbic acid-synthesizing enzymes, D-glucurono-δ-lactone hydrolase, L-gulono-γ-lactone hydrolase, TPN-L-hexonate dehydrogenase, and L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase, were estimated in liver. The activities of ascorbic acid-degrading enzymes, dehydroascorbatase and 2,3-diketoaldonate decarboxylase, were studied in liver and kidney. Cortisone or hydrocortisone had no appreciable effect on ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, and diketogulonic acid contents of liver, urine, and blood in adrenalectomized rats. In normal rats, however, these glucocorticoids caused a moderate decrease in the ascorbic acid with an increase in dehydroascorbic acid contents of liver, only. These hormones had no appreciable effect either on the activities of any of the ascorbic acid-synthesizing enzymes or on the ascorbic acid-degrading enzymes both in liver and kidney. Administration of DOCA or aldosterone, however, significantly increased the contents of ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid but decreased diketogulonic acid in liver, both in normal and adrenalectomized rats. Similarly, these hormones also increased the daily excretion of ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid in these rats. These hormones also caused a significant increase in the total ascorbic acid content of blood in normal, as well as in adrenalectomized, rats. Both DOCA and aldosterone had no appreciable effect on any of the ascorbic acid-synthesizing enzymes in normal, as well as in adrenalectomized, rats. These mineralocorticoids, however, decreased the activities of ascorbic acid-degrading enzymes in liver and kidney. The decrease in the activities of these enzymes were moderate in normal rats but were much more appreciable in adrenalectomized rats.
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