Cartilage vitamin

Ascorbic acid—vitamin C—is an essential nutrient that the human body cannot manufacture from other compounds. It is needed for the formation of collagen, the protein that makes up connective tissue, and is essential to muscles, bones, cartilage, and blood vessels. It is a strong antioxidant, preventing damage from oxygen free radicals. 

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the antiscurvy vitamin, is used by the body to form and maintain intercellular and skeletal material such as the collagen of fibrous tissue and the matrix of bone, dentin, and cartilage. Milk and milk products are not considered a significant source of this vitamin and should not be relied upon as such. Freshly drawn cow s milk contains about 2 mg ascorbic acid per 100 g milk, but as vitamin C is heat labile and easily destroyed by oxidation, the vitamin C content of pasteurized milk is reduced to about 0.94 mg/100 g. 

A partial list of physiological functions til at have been determined to be affected by vitamin C deficiencies includes (1) absorption of iron (2) cold tolerance, maintenance of adrenal cortex (3) antioxidant (4) metabolism of tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine (5) body growth (6) wound healing (7) synthesis of polysaccharides and collagen (8) formation of cartilage, dentine, bone, and teeth and (9) maintenance of capillaries. 

Deficiency syndromes of Zn, Cu, Cr, Se and Mo have occurred in patients on total parenteral nutrition (TPN). There is still much research to be done in assessing the nutritional status of many elements and understanding their metabolism, so that normal dietary intake may be supplemented for health benefits. Table 2 is a summary of the amounts required, the functions and the nutritional (usually dietary) imbalances in humans, where known, of the essential trace elements.31-33 (Note that this summary does not attempt to include imbalances related to environmental toxicology and occupational hazards.) Several trace elements have important functions in the immune system. Some are associated with nucleic acid. Others have structural roles, such as Si in cartilage, F and Zn in bone. They may be parts of vitamins, such as Co in vitamin B12, or hormones, such as iodine in thyroid hormones, Zn and Cr have a role in the synthesis and action of insulin.31-33... 

Vitamin C is essential for the healing of wounds, and for the repair and maintenance of cartilage, bones, and teeth. 

The vitamin D metabolites (l,25(OH)2D3 and 24,25(OH)2D3) are also known to exert an effect upon cartilage [33]. Receptors for both dihydroxylated vitamin D metabolites have been apparently found in this tissue, and they both can stimulate the uptake of 35S04 into proteoglycans. 

Vitamin D may regulate calcification of cartilage by regulating chondrocyte synthesis of proteoglycans. l,25(OH)2D3, an active metabolite of vitamin D has been shown to produce a concentration-dependent reduction in an immortalized rat chondrocyte cell line. Both vitamin D and l,25(OH)2D3 are considered secosteroids with vitamin D receptors, which includes cytosolic/nuclear proteins that bind specifically to the secosteroid as it transits the plasma membrane. 

B. Kurz, B. Jost, M. Schunk, Dietary vitamins and selenium diminish the development of mechanically induced osteoarthritis and increase the expression of antioxidative enzymes in the knee joint of STR/1 N mice, Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 10 (2002), 119D26. 

The relationship of serum calcium and phosphate with rickets was discovered by Howland and Kramer [10]. They found that blood from normal rats could mineralize rachitic rat cartilage, whereas blood from rachitic rats could not. They also provided evidence that a low serum calcium and phosphate status caused rickets. Orr etal. [11] demonstrated that UV irradiation stimulated calcium absorption. This study was largely unappreciated for 30 years until Nicolaysen and Eeg-Larsen [12] and Schachter and Rosen [13] demonstrated evidence for vitamin D-induced intestinal absorption of calcium by an active transport process. 

Further evidence that C-25 and C-l hydroxylation are the activation steps of vitamin D3, and that C-24/C-23 and C-23/C-26-lactone metabolic conversions do not produce physiologically important products is with the use of side-chain fluoridated analogues of 25-OH-D3 [87, 88], Studies with these analogues were prompted by assertions that 24-hydroxylated or lactone metabolites are involved or required for such biological actions as mineralization of bone [89], suppression of parathyroid hormone secretion [90], cartilage metabolism [91], and embryonic development in the chick [92]. It is well established that plasma 24,25-(OH)2D3 concentrations (2-5 ng/ml) are approximately 50 times greater than those of l,25-(OH)2D3. Even so,... 

Lipid nutritional supplements have been in use before the term nutraceutical was coined. Products such as fish oils, shark cartilage, shark liver oil, and vitamins have been in the market since the beginning of the twentieth century. Some of the health claims of these products lacked strict scientific documentation in the past, and their curative properties were mostly anecdotal. However, today there is a better understanding of the biological properties of lipids and their application has extended to combined pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields such as disease prevention and treatment, excipients and coadjuvants, frawi-dermal carriers, and skin emolliency agents. This has led to the development of bioactive cosmetic and pharmaceutical products whose name has recently been coined as cosmeceuticals. 

Growth Vitamin A helps in the formation of chondritin sulfate in cartilage. In absence of Vitamin A, animal fails to grow, bone growth is slow. 

Vitamin C is found in fresh fruits and vegetables including citrus fruits. Vitamin C is necessary for the health of the supporting tissues of the body such as bone, cartilage and connective tissue. 

Lagman R, Walsh D. Dangerous nutrition Calcium, vitamin D, and shark cartilage nutritional supplements and cancer-related hypercalcemia. Support Care Cancer 2003 ll(4) 232-5. 

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