Ascorbic acid in a New World monkey family: species difference and influence of stressors on ascorbic acid metabolism

Like other simian primates, the New World monkey Callithrix jacchus, marmoset, and Saguinus fuscicollis, tamarin, require ascorbic acid as an essential nutrient. For adult marmosets, a daily intake of 15 mg/kg metabolic body weight was found to be necessary to obtain a serum level above the kidney threshold. A survey of the serum ascorbic acid level of marmosets and tamarins in a breeding colony resulted in a vast divergence between the two species, indicating a higher ascorbic acid requirement for tamarins. Unaccustomed trial conditions or additional stressors resulted in a higher catabolism of ascorbic acid to CO2 in both species, measured with 14C labeled material, compared to a higher rate of renal excretion when the animals were accustomed to the metabolic cage. These isotope excretion studies suggest a different metabolic behavior of ascorbic acid in the two species. This is supposedly caused by a higher sensitivity of the tamarins when subjected to the same conditions as marmosets.