The role of vitamin C in animals resistant to scurvy: effects of insulin and adrenaline

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Abstract
The vit. C content of livers and suprarenals of adult rats is not altered by replacing an ordinary diet by a scorbutic one for 90 days, while the level of excretion in the urine rapidly falls and remains low for a certain period after which it gradually increases but remains lower than on the ordinary diet. Starvation for 24 hrs. does not alter the vitamin contents of the organs but increases the urinary excretion. Insulin increases the vitamin content of the liver but not of the suprarenals. Adrenaline does not alter the content of the organs but lowers the excretion. The degree of saturation of the body with vitamin C plays part in the extent of adrenaline glyco-suria, the rate of glycogenolysis caused by adrenaline runs parallel with this degree of saturation. The degree of saturation may be a direct factor in determining the rate of glycogenolysis, or the vitamin may protect the adrenaline from rapid oxidation thus prolonging its effect. Since, under the same conditions, no glycosuria is produced by adrenaline in rats kept on a scorbutic diet the vitamin synthesis by rats on this diet produces a relatively lower saturation of the body than on an ordinary diet. The storage and excretion of the vitamin in the different conditions suggest a parallelism between the extent of the metabolism of the different substances and of a utilization of the vitamin.