The effect of vitamin C on plasma volume in the early stage of sepsis in the rat

BackgroundPrevious experimental studies have shown that vitamin C has several beneficial effects in sepsis and burns, such as decreased tissue oedema, improved endothelial barrier function and decreased transcapillary leakage of plasma markers. It has still not been investigated, though, if vitamin C has any impact specifically on plasma volume. The present study aims at testing the hypothesis that vitamin C decreases plasma volume loss in sepsis.MethodsAnaesthetized male adult Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this prospective randomized study. All experiments were carried out at a university hospital laboratory. Sepsis was induced by caecal ligation and incision. After 3 h, vitamin C was given either as a bolus dose (66 mg/kg) followed by a continuous infusion (33 mg/kg/h) (n = 9), or as a single bolus dose (200 mg/kg) (n = 9). A sham group (n = 9) underwent the same surgical procedure, but no vitamin C was given. Plasma volume was measured (125I-dilution technique) at baseline, at 3 h after end of initiation of sepsis and at the end of the experiment 3 h later. Arterial blood samples for analyses of electrolytes, blood gases, haematocrit and lactate were taken at the same time points.ResultsThere were no significant differences in plasma volumes or the physiological parameters analysed between any of the three groups at any time point. There was a significantly larger urine production in the single bolus dose group (200 mg/kg) compared to the sham group.ConclusionsVitamin C treatment did not decrease the loss of plasma volume in the septic rat. The diuretic effect of vitamin C was in accordance with previous studies.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Intensive Care Medicine Experimental

• Publication date

  2014-03-06

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/2197-425X-2-11PMID 26266908PMCID 4512993
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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