Other Effects on the Immune Response

Ascorbate seems to affect the immune response at more than one level. Aside from distinct roles in stimulating phagocytic function and lymphocyte activation, large doses of ascorbate have also been found to stimulate production of protein molecules involved in the immune response. Earlier reports conflicted on ascor- 

Dietary vitamin C was also shown to enhance interferon production by the mouse after stimulation with murine leukemia virus (Siegel, 1973 Siegel and Morton, 1977). In separate studies, ascorbate also demonstrated enhanced interferon production in mouse (Siegel, 1975) and human embryonic fibroblasts (Dahl and Depre, 1976 Karpinska et al., 1982) exposed in vitro to inducers of interferon. Since ascorbate has been shown to regulate the activity of 7 interferon on lymphocytic cultures, this is a most important avenue for further study. 

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