Effect of Administered Ascorbic Acid on Nitrogen Metabolic Response to Thermal Trauma

Abstract

Conclusion

Loss of weight and increase in urinary nitrogen excretion, total and amino, by rats with severe thermal injury were unaffected by large doses of ascorbic acid begun shortly after injury and continued throughout the period of negative nitrogen balance (18 days). That these findings may be applicable to those species (man, monkey, and guinea pig) which depend on exogenous ascorbic acid for their normal requirements, unlike the rat, is suggested by the observations that marked increases in urinary nitrogen excretion following severe injury occur in patients receiving up to one g of vit. C daily (13).