[Interaction of vitamins K and C in the body of rats]

The influence of ascorbic acid on the content and intracellular distribution of ubiquinone in the tissues of K-avitaminotic rats was investigated. Following introduction of pelentan (30--40 mg/kg), a vitamin K antagonist, a rise in the level of ubiquinone in all of the study organs, occurring both at the expense of the post-mitochondrial fraction of the liver, heart, spleen and also at that of the cardiac and splenic mitochondria, could be registered. The ubiquinone concentration in hepatic mitochondria was going down. In K-avitaminotic rats, which received ascorbic acid, the co-enzyme content in the tissues approached control values. Vitamin C exerted a positive action on the ubiquinone level in the mitochondria of the liver, heart and spleen. The cited data suggest that vitamin C abolishes manifestations of the K-vitamin deficiency affecting the ubiquinone pool and secures its optimal content in the mitochondria. Considering the significance of vitamins K, C and ubiquinone in the tissular redox processes an interaction of the said vitamins at the level of the tissue respiration chain is presumed.