Vitamin C inhibits LPS-induced secretion of inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood

Despite extensive evidence demonstrating that vitamin C suppresses the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, research exploring its impact on cytokine release from peripheral blood cells upon bacterial antigen stimulation remains limited. This research investigated the influence of vitamin C on LPS-triggered secretion of cellular inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood. Ten healthy volunteers provided heparinized whole blood, diluted with RPMI-1640 and distributed into containers. Cytokines (IL-10, IFN-γ, IL-4, TNF-α, IL-2 and IL-6) were quantified using flow cytometric cytokine detection kits. Results showed that LPS significantly increased IL-10 (baseline 2.7±1.35 pg/mL to 34.1±14.86 pg/mL), TNF-α (1.5±0.71 pg/mL to 1136.4±476.56 pg/mL) and IL-6 (1.8±0.59 pg/mL to 2033.4±755.29 pg/mL) levels, while IFN-γ, IL-4 and IL-2 remained unaffected. Vitamin C treatment significantly inhibited the secretion of IL-10 (23.5±5.5 pg/mL, P=0.0019), TNF-α (407.3±96.44 pg/mL, P=0.0389) and IL-6 (1572.4±444.43 pg/mL, P=0.0275). Both LPS and vitamin C caused a mild reduction in red blood cell counts, but no hemolysis was observed. These findings highlight vitamin C's potential to inhibit LPS-induced inflammation in peripheral blood, providing a basis for its therapeutic application in bacterial infection-related inflammatory diseases.