title: Ascorbic acid in a New World monkey family: species difference and influence of stressors on ascorbic acid metabolism.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physiologie, Physiologische Chemie und Ernährungsphysiologie, Tierärztlichen Fakultät, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, FRG.
authors.forename: C I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Flurer
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zucker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000652:urine; D002144:Callithrix / Q000378:metabolism*; D002143:Callitrichinae / Q000378:metabolism*; D012452:Saguinus / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001205:Ascorbic Acid