A study of whole-body isotope dilution of [14C]ascorbic acid in guinea-pigs with graded ascorbate intakes

The purpose of the present study was first to assess the extent to which unlabelled ascorbate in the diet of guinea-pigs can exchange with labelled ascorbate within their organs when the dietary intake is varied over a wide range, and second to determine whether the retention of label might be used to assess either the amount of ascorbate intake or its biological availability where these are not known. The retention of [14C]ascorbate in the body and in various organs of guinea-pigs were, therefore, measured following a 13 d period of graded dietary intakes of ascorbate. It was found first, that the amount of label retained in each of the organs, 13 d after the initial dose of labelled ascorbate, was much more closely related to the amount of ascorbate intake after labelling than to the intake (and tissue ascorbate levels) before and at the time of labelling. Second, most of the individual internal organs exhibited a constant relationship between the specific activity at 13 d and the dietary intake, except for brain which was flushed to a smaller extent. Third, in agreement with several previous studies a high proportion of the radioactive label in the tissues was found to be still present in ascorbate. The specific activity of column-purified ascorbate was very similar to the estimated specific activity in the crude extract, which implies that it may be possible to estimate specific activities (or stable isotope enrichments) at certain sites without rigorous isolation procedures. Fourth, the amount of radioactivity appearing in the urine 2 d before killing the animals was correlated with the amount of ascorbate intake and with tissue specific activities, suggesting that intakes (or bioavailability) might be predicted from the patterns of label-appearance in the urine.