Measurement of Ascorbate and Dehydroascorbate Contents in Biological Fluids

Instabilities of ascorbate and dehydroascorbate throughout sample processing are clearly a significant aspect of quantifing of them. Contents of ascorbate in biological fluids decrease with measurable oxidation occurring within minutes to hours. Similarly, dehydroascorbate disappears with chemical or enzymatic degradation within minutes. The half-life of dehydroascorbate in human heparinized plasma was ∼2 min. These results indicated that the amount of dehydroascorbate present in sample solutions is a function of both the oxidation of ascorbate and the degradation of dehydroascorbate during the processing of biological fluids. To quantify ascorbate and dehydroascorbate concentrations in biological fluids including circulating blood plasma and urine, we established a high-performance liquid chromatographic method, which requires no pretreatment of sample solutions.