Cardiology Letters 2020, 29(4):248-255

Vitamin C supplementation promotes whole blood rheology in healthy humans

Radošinská J^{1, 2}, Jasenovec T¹, Púzserová A³, Krajčír J¹, Laceková J¹, Kučerová K¹, Kalnovičová T⁴, Tóthová Ľ⁵, Kovačicová I², Vrbjar N²

Lekárska fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Bratislava, Slovenská republika

Objectives: Rheological properties of blood significantly affect blood flow in large vessels. Changes in macrocirculation contribute to atherogenesis and consequently cardio-vascular diseases. However, blood flow disorders also impair the quality of microcirculation, e.g. in patients with recurrent episodes of cardiac ischemia. Since a negative correlation between plasma vitamin C levels and blood viscosity was found, we focused on the effect of vitamin C on hemorheology in more detail. Considering the important role of erythrocytes in blood rheology, we decided to simultaneously monitor changes in erythrocyte parameters.

Methods: Hemorheological parameters were determined by rotational and oscillatory measurements. Regarding erythrocytes, we measured their deformability, nitric oxide production and sodium-potassium pump activity.

Results: We observed a beneficial effect of increased vitamin C intake on several hemorheological parameters as well as improvement of erythrocyte deformability, increased nitric oxide production and activity of sodium-potassium pump. No change in oxidative stress and antioxidant protection parameters in plasma was observed.

Conclusion: Vitamin C administration led to an improvement in several hemorheological parameters in healthy young volunteers. Since improvement in hemorheology may contribute to better quality of macro- and microcirculation, our results suggest a possible benefit of vitamin C administration in patients with impaired hemodynamics.

Keywords: vitamin C; hemorheology; erythrocytes; erythrocyte deformability; nitric oxide; Na,K-ATPase

Published: April 1, 2020  Show citation