Elsevier

Clinica Chimica Acta

Volume 217, Issue 2, 31 August 1993, Pages 163-173
Clinica Chimica Acta

Ascorbate concentration in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum. Intrathecal accumulation and CSF flow rate

https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-8981(93)90162-W Get rights and content

Abstract

Concentrations of ascorbate (vitamin C) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from human controls (median 163 μmol/l, n = 63) were found to be in the same range as CSF samples from patients (n = 56) with various neurological diseases, but excluding those with blood-CSF barrier dysfunction. The CSF/serum concentration ratio in the former group is non-linear, decreasing with increasing serum concentration. Surprisingly, ascorbate concentration in blood (median 41 μmol/l, n = 119) was decreased significantly in cases of neurological diseases with a blood-CSF barrier dysfunction (median 26 μmol/l, n = 30). In this latter group a linear CSF to serum ratio with a mean of 5.7:1 (with CSF/serum albumin quiotients QAlb = 7.8–70.8 · 10−3, median 10.0 · 10−3) was observed, approaching a value >12.5:1 in the case of complete stop of CSF flow. Serum ascorbate concentrations decreased with decreasing CSF flow rate (1√QAlb), indicating a CSF flow-dependent constant contribution from high intrathecal ascorbate concentration to the varying diet-dependent concentrations in blood. In the control group the biological coefficient of variation for CSF ascorbate concentrations (C.V. = 21.1%) was smaller than for serum concentrations (C.V. = 42.6%), confirming an efficient ascorbate homeostasis in human brain. This was different from uric acid which was used as a reference molecule with an inversed gradient in the same group of control patients. Similar variations in CSF(y) and serum(x) for urate concentrations are observed due to the strong correlation y = 0.1x ± 10 μmol/l, including 99% of the cases with an urate serum concentration range from 80 μmol/l to 460 μmol/l.

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