Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient that is involved in a number of cellular processes. However, unlike most mammals, man is unable to synthesize vitamin C and it must therefore be acquired from the diet. Absorption of vitamin C is achieved by two transporters, SVCT1 and SVCT2, recently cloned from rat and human kidney. SVCT1 is thought to be the predominant transporter in the intestine. Vitamin C supplements are increasingly common, thus contributing to an increased dietary load, and therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of high doses of ascorbic acid on SVCT1 expression. Using the Caco-2 TC7 cell model of small intestinal enterocytes, we measured the effects of ascorbic acid (4·5 mg/ml culture medium) on L-[ 14 C]ascorbic acid uptake and SVCT1 expression (determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction). Ascorbic acid uptake was decreased significantly in Caco-2 TC7 cells exposed to ascorbate for 24 h (2 50 %, P,0·0005). Expression of SVCT1 was also significantly reduced by exposure to elevated levels of ascorbate for 24 h (2 77 %, P,0·005). Taken together these results suggest that high-dose supplements might not be the most efficient way of increasing the body pool of vitamin C.

Leptin is a potent anorexigen, but little is known about the physiological conditions under which this cytokine regulates food intake in fish. In this study, we characterized the relationships between food intake, O 2 -carrying capacity, liver leptin-A1 (lep-a1) gene expression, and plasma leptin-A1 in rainbow trout infected with a pathogenic hemoflagellate, Cryptobia salmositica. As lep gene expression is hypoxia-sensitive and Cryptobia-infected fish are anemic, we hypothesized that Cryptobia-induced anorexia is mediated by leptin. A 14-week time course experiment revealed that Cryptobia-infected fish experience a transient 75% reduction in food intake, a sharp initial drop in hematocrit and hemoglobin levels followed by a partial recovery, a transient 17-fold increase in lep-a1 gene expression, and a sustained increase in plasma leptin-A1 levels. In the hypothalamus, peak anorexia was associated with decreases in mRNA levels of neuropeptide Y (npy) and cocaineand amphetamine-regulated transcript (cart), and increases in agouti-related protein (agrp) and pro-opiomelanocortin A2 (pomc). In contrast, in non-infected fish pair-fed to infected animals, lep-a1 gene expression and plasma levels did not differ from those of non-infected satiated fish. Pair-fed fish were also characterized by increases in hypothalamic npy and agrp, no changes in pomc-a2, and a reduction in cart mRNA expression. Finally, peak infection was characterized by a significant positive correlation between O 2 -carrying capacity and food intake. These findings show that hypoxemia, and not feed restriction, stimulates leptin-A1 secretion in Cryptobia-infected rainbow trout and suggest that leptin contributes to anorexia by inhibiting hypothalamic npy and stimulating pomc-a2.