title: Hepatic ascorbic acid saturation is the most stringent response criterion for determining the vitamin C requirement of juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).
abstract: Our main objective was to verify whether the dietary ascorbic acid (AA) requirement of juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) varies as a function of different physiological needs. Practical diets with eight (0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320 mg AA/kg diet) levels of ascorbic acid polyphosphate were fed to sea bass (mean weight: 0.7 g) for 15 wk. At the beginning and at the end of the feeding trial, tissues were sampled for vitamin C and hydroxyproline (HyPro) analysis. Dose-dependent responses of skin and whole body HyPro concentrations and hepatic AA concentration to dietary vitamin C levels were observed. Skin and whole body HyPro concentrations were low in sea bass fed AA-deficient diet, 217 and 15 nmol/g tissue, respectively. HyPro levels increased with increasing dietary levels, reaching plateaus of 297 and 45 nmol/g tissue in the skin and whole body at dietary vitamin C levels of at least 5 and 31 mg AA/kg. Hepatic AA level increased with increasing dietary levels, reaching a plateau of 474 pmol/g tissue in juveniles fed at least 121 mg of AA/kg. We concluded that hepatic AA saturation is the most stringent response criterion for determination of the vitamin C requirement in juvenile European sea bass.
authors.affiliation: Fish Nutrition Laboratory, Unité mixte INRA-IFREMER, B.P 70, 29280 Plouzané, Station d'Hydrobiologie, INRA 64310 St. Pée-sur-Nivelle, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gouillou-Coustans
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kaushik
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D001492:Bass; D001682:Biological Availability; D004032:Diet; D006909:Hydroxyproline / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D001205:Ascorbic Acid; D006909:Hydroxyproline