> Immuno bionet readers,
> This is a follow-up to my posting of 11-Mar-98 regarding Dr. Mark
> Levine's studies on Vitamin C and neutrophils. I suggested that there
> would be a similar result with macrophages which are phagocytes like
> neutrophils but in tissue. Since it is difficult to measure the amount
> of Vitamin C absorbed by macrophages, one could take the reverse scheme
> and measure the reduction of Vitamin C levels in plasma when the immune
> system is challenged in a way that involves the macrophages. The most
> obvious way to do this is by some sort of attack or injection to the
> skin or external muscle tissue. One would have to measure the pattern
> of decline of vitamin C in plasma, after ingesting a dose, to establish
> a reference when the immune system is not challenged. Then the test
> would be repeated with the challenge being presented two hours after
> ingesting the Vitamin C. The difference should also be dependent by
> the strength of the challenge. This would be an in vivo test.
> Regards, Ralph L. Samson
I'm just curious Ralph. Let's assume that one could devise an
appropriate "immune system challenge that involves the macrophages" to
perform your hypothetical experiment. If the results showed no
measurable differences in circulating plasma Vitamin C levels between
the control group and the "immune system challenged" group, what
conclusions would you draw?
--Dom Spinella
