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Dietary vitamin C supplementation decreases blood pressure in DOCA-salt hypertensive male Sprague Dawley rats and this is associated with increased liver oxidative stress

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Abstract

The effects of a vitamin C supplemented diet on blood pressure, body and liver weights, liver antioxidant status, iron and copper levels were investigated in DOCA-salt treated and untreated Sprague-Dawley (SD) male rats after 8 weeks of treatment. Vitamin C supplementation had no effect on blood pressure in SD rats but induced a significant decrease in blood pressure in DOCA-salt treated rats, the decrease being more efficient at 50 mg/kg of vitamin C than at 500 mg/kg. Hepatic lipid peroxidation and iron levels were significantly increased in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats whereas total hepatic antioxidant capacity (HAC), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) activities were decreased. Vitamin C supplementation did not affect the overall antioxidant defences of control SD rat livers. In contrast, vitamin C supplementation accentuated the DOCA-salt induced accumulation of liver iron and lipid peroxidation. This occurred without any notable aggravation in the antioxidant deficiency of vitamin C supplemented DOCA-salt treated rat livers. Our data suggest that DOCA-salt treatment induces an accumulation of iron in rat livers which is responsible for the prooxidant effect of vitamin C. The normalization of blood pressure in DOCA-salt treated rats by vitamin C supplementation appears thus independent from liver antioxidant status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physiologie, UFR Médecine-Pharmacie, Besançon, France

    Fatiha Elhaïmeur & Carol Courderot-Masuyer

  2. Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire, UFR Médecine-Pharmacie, Besançon, France

    Laurence Nicod, Catherine Guyon & Lysiane Richert

  3. Laboratoire de Physiologie, UFR Médecine-Pharmacie, 4 place Saint-Jacques, 25030, Besanç cedex;on, France

    Alain Berthelot

Authors
  1. Fatiha Elhaïmeur
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  2. Carol Courderot-Masuyer
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  3. Laurence Nicod
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  4. Catherine Guyon
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  5. Lysiane Richert
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  6. Alain Berthelot
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Elhaïmeur, F., Courderot-Masuyer, C., Nicod, L. et al. Dietary vitamin C supplementation decreases blood pressure in DOCA-salt hypertensive male Sprague Dawley rats and this is associated with increased liver oxidative stress. Mol Cell Biochem 237, 77–83 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016587201108

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