Leucocyte ascorbic acid and pregnancy

Abstract

1. Leucocyte ascorbic acid concentrations have been measured in 1147 females during early pregnancy and in smaller numbers of women before conception, throughout pregnancy and at 6 months post partum. 2. The leucocyte concentration in the 1st trimester was found to be affected by season, social class and smoking. Selecting individuals by extremes of social class, season and smoking produced two small populations with almost separate ascorbic acid distributions and mean concentrations of 21.7 and 45.1 microgram/10(8) leucocytes. 3. Early pregnancy had little effect on leucocyte ascorbic acid concentrations but values decreased in the second trimester. However, this was associated with a leucocytosis so that the total leucocyte ascorbic acid content of blood was unchanged. 4. Low ascorbic acid concentrations during the 1st trimester were not associated with subsequent spontaneous abortions, still-births or neonatal deaths, but there was an increased frequency of low values in women who gave birth to infants smaller than 3250 g. 5. The adequacy of ascorbic acid reserves in early pregnancy is discussed.

Severe hypovitaminosis C in lung-cancer patients: the utilization of vitamin C in surgical repair and lymphocyte-related host resistance

“…Seasonal differences were noted throughout the study in agreement with earlier findings from this laboratory (Schorah et al, 1978) and, among interviewed follow-up patients, on a crude assessment, those who ate better diets showed higher plasma and buffy-coat vitamin C levels. In addition, the treatment of terminal-cancer patients, and of patients undergoing resection, with a relatively modest regime of vitamin C supplementation, increased both the plasma and the buffy-coat vitamin C levels in every patient (Table VIII).…”

The level of vitamin C reserves required in man: towards a solution to the controversy

“…Unfortunately, leucocytes isolated following dextran sedementation of the red cells, the most frequently used technique (Denson & Bowers, 1961), are contaminated with platelets and more strictly should be described as a buffy coat preparation (Attwood et al 1974). Such contamination leads to error in the estimation when different ratios of leucocytes and platelets are obtained and could contribute to the inverse relationship seen between leucocyte numbers and leucocyte vitamin C concentration (Schorah et al 1978).…”

“…The answer may, in part, be the seasonal variation which occurs in ascorbic acid intake (Schorah et al 1978), late winter and early spring being periods of low intake probably due to both the expense of fresh fruit and vegetables and the consumption of old potatoes, low in vitamin C at this time of the year (McCance & Widdowson, 1960). Those who are well (Schorah et al 1978) and those who are in hospital (Table 3) show a fall in vitamin C reserves at this time of the year, but whilst the former remain adequately supplied, a large proportion of those in hospital, who have more marginal reserves, become depleted ( Table 3) The second question arises from the concern that low levels of vitamin C may compromise the health of these subjects in ways that do not manifest as classical scurvy. The answer to this is not yet available, but its solution could be approached in two ways.…”

“…Such contamination leads to error in the estimation when different ratios of leucocytes and platelets are obtained and could contribute to the inverse relationship seen Vol. 40 between leucocyte numbers and leucocyte vitamin C concentration (Schorah et al 1978).…”

The effect of nutritional intake on outcome of pregnancy in smokers and non-smokers

“…Further impetus to the hypothesis that the effects of smoking may be mediated through nutritional factors has been provided by studies of biochemical nutritional status which have indicated that smokers have lower circulating levels of folate (Witter et al 1982;Nakazawa et ul. 1983), vitamin C (Calder et al 1963;Pelletier, 1970Pelletier, , 1975Schorah et al 1978) and carotene (Witter et al 1982), and by studies indicating that birth weight is associated with lower circulating zinc (Meadows et al 1981 ;Patrick et al 1982;Simmer & Thompson, 1984;Wells et al 1987), carotene and amino acids (Crosby et al 1977).…”