The effects of vitamin C supplementation on IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and total oxidant and antioxidant status in rats of different age and sex

In recent years, the individual use of vitamin C supplements has increased, especially in order to protect against diseases and mitigate the effects of diseases. Therefore, it is important to know what kind of changes vitamin C supplemention makes in all processes which it interacts and biochemical and physiological functions it causes, and creates which associated clinical benefits. In the study conducted with Sprague Dawley rats of different ages and sexes, it was aimed to investigate the possible effect of supplemental oral vitamin C administered to rats at a daily dose of 500 mg/kg on serum vitamin C, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α levels, total oxidant/antioxidant balance and hemogram parameters. Young, adult, old Sprague Dawley male and female rats constitute the material of the study. The rats in all three age groups consisted of 84 rats randomly divided into 12 groups, each containing 7 animals, as male and female, given physiological water and administered oral vitamin C at a dose of 500 mg/kg body weight. While 42 rats in the control groups were administered 1 ml of saline via oral gastric gavage for 30 days, 42 rats in the experimental groups received oral vitamin C supplementation at a daily dose of 500 mg/kg body weight via gastric gavage for 30 days. While some hemogram parameters were determined using blood samples collected in vacuumed K3 EDTA tubes, vitamin C, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β proinflammatory cytokine measurements, as well as TAS and TOS measurements, were determined from serum samples. In this study, it was determined that gender and age had affected on serum vitamin C while supplementation had no effect. Age affected both proinflammatory cytokines and oxidant and antioxidant indicators, while the effect of supplementation and gender on proinflammatory cytokines and oxidant and antioxidant indicators was not observed, Among the hemogram parameters, it was found that supplementation affected the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin level, age affected the number of white blood cells, and gender affected many values. In this study; It was concluded that oral supplementation of vitamin C did not affect proinflammatory cytokines and total oxidant / antioxidant balance.