274 ASCORBIC ACID 



reaction should occur with pure preparations of the enzyme, it would be 

 of considerable interest.^^ ■ ^^ 



(1) Fibers. The relative proportion of the total nitrogen of the body found 

 in collagen is shown in a study made by Lightfoot and Coolidge^' on the 

 distribution of collagen in a half-grown guinea pig. In the hairless animal 

 the collagen nitrogen constituted 28.6% of the total nitrogen. The fascia 

 contained a large portion of the total collagen. In similar studies with rats 

 Neuberger et al.^- estimated that about one-third of the total mass of the 

 protein of the body consists of collagen. 



Many of the original mesenchymal cells of the embryo become trans- 

 formed into fibroblasts. The role of these cells and the stimulating effect 

 upon them of ascorbic acid in the formation of connective tissue fibers 

 has been developed and elucidated largely from studies made with tissue 

 cultures, inflammatory reactions, and in healing experimentally induced 

 wounds. Von Jeney and Toro^^ grew fibroblasts in tissue cultures and found 

 that addition of ascorbic acid caused a more rapid production of fibers. 

 Mazoue^"* and Querido and Gaillard^^ confirmed this observation. Wolbach 

 and Howe^ showed that when incisions were made in the skin of scorbutic 

 animals the wounds failed to heal. After experimental bone injuries, new 

 bone formation failed to take place. Proliferation of the fibroblasts, osteo- 

 blasts, epidermis, and endothelium was almost as active as in the normal 

 animals. However, the fibroblasts and osteoblasts were unable to differ- 

 entiate and mature. The results of other studies of wound healing 

 and inflammatory reactions have confirmed and added to these find- 

 ings.^''- ^^' ^^"^^ Hunt found that in normal guinea pigs a mature vascular 

 scar was formed in 14 days.^^ Bartlett et al,}^ have shown that ascorbic 

 acid apparently accumulates in and around traumatized tissues. This in- 

 crease presumably may be a factor in the accumulation of fibroblasts and 



39 J. F. A. McManus and J. C. Saunders, Science 111, 204 (1950). 



" J. F. A. McManus and J. E. Cason, Arch. Biochem. and Biophys. 34, 293 (1951). 



41 L. H. Lightfoot and T. B. Coolidge, J. Biol. Chcm. 176, 477 (1948). 



« A. Neuberger, J. C. Perrone, and H. G. B. Slack, Biochem. J. 49, 199 (1951). 



*^ A. Von Jeney and E. Toro, Virchow's Arch, pathol. Anat. u. Physiol. 298, 87 (1936). 



" H. Mazou4, Compt. rend. sac. biol. 126, 991 (1937). 



*^ A. Querido and P. J. Gaillard, Acta Brevia Neerl. Physiol. Pharmacol . Microbiol. 9, 



70 (1939). 

 « T. H. Lanham and T. H. Ingalls, Ann. Surg. 105, 616 (1937). 

 " M. Taffel and S. C. Harvey, Proc. Sac. Exptl. Biol. Med. 38, 518 (1938). 

 4« H. J. Laul)er and W. Rosenfeld, Klin. Wochschr. 17, 15S7 (1938). 

 49 G. Bourne, Lancet 243, 661 (1942). 



6« J. B. Hartzell and W. \']. Stone, Surg. Gynecol. Obstct. 75, 1 (1942). 

 " M. K. Bartlett, C. M. Jones, and A. E. Kyan, Ann. Surg. Ill, 1 (1940). 

 " E. M. Meyer and M. B. Meyer, Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. 74, 98 (1944). 

 " A. H. Hunt, Brit. J. Surg. 28, 436 (1941). 



