Long term administration of ascorbic acid does not improve a decreased bone weight and mineral content in rats with neonatally induced streptozotocin diabetes.
Adult female rats which were neonatally made diabetic with streptozotocin showed evidence of a pronounced decrease of dry weight, ash weight, calcium, phosphorus and ascorbic acid content in the femur, as compared with control rats. However, such diabetic rats receiving large doses of ascorbic acid (100 mg/kg/day) for 85 days did not show any improvement of the above measures in spite of normalization of bone ascorbic acid content. Thus, additional ascorbic acid given to diabetic rats with osteopenia restored bone ascorbic acid content but did not improve the bone loss resulting from chronic diabetes mellitus. Additional ascorbic acid given to intact rats did not show any additional effect on the increase of bone mass and mineral content.
Broulik
PD
Third Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague and Research Institute of Endocrinology, Prague, Czech Republic.
Stolba
P