By: Xu-qing Liu, Qiu-mei Lin, Chen-wei Zhang, Han-ling Zhang, Ming-jie Li, Rui-ying Li, Size Chen, Yu-bin Guan, Shuo-qi Jiang, Jia-yi Wu, Yi-qi Lin, Ya-wen Yang, Zhao-shou Yang
Keywords: Vitamin C, LPS, peripheral blood, inflammatory cytokines.
DOI : 10.36721/PJPS.2025.38.1.REG.249-259.1
Abstract: Despite extensive evidence demonstrating that vitamin C suppresses the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, research exploring its impact on cytokine release from peripheral blood cells upon bacterial antigen stimulation remains limited. This research investigated the influence of vitamin C on LPS-triggered secretion of cellular inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood. Ten healthy volunteers provided heparinized whole blood, diluted with RPMI-1640, and distributed into containers. Cytokines (IL-10, IFN-?, IL-4, TNF-?, IL-2, and IL-6) were quantified using flow cytometric cytokine detection kits. Results showed that LPS significantly increased IL-10 (baseline 2.7±1.35 pg/mL to 34.1±14.86 pg/mL), TNF-? (1.5±0.71 pg/mL to 1136.4±476.56 pg/mL) and IL-6 (1.8±0.59 pg/mL to 2033.4±755.29 pg/mL) levels, while IFN-?, IL-4 and IL-2 remained unaffected. Vitamin C treatment significantly inhibited the secretion of IL-10 (23.5±5.5 pg/mL, P=0.0019), TNF-? (407.3±96.44 pg/mL, P=0.0389) and IL-6 (1572.4±444.43 pg/mL, P=0.0275). Both LPS and vitamin C caused a mild reduction in red blood cell counts, but no hemolysis was observed. These findings highlight vitamin C's potential to inhibit LPS-induced inflammation in peripheral blood, providing a basis for its therapeutic application in bacterial infection-related inflammatory diseases.
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