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1: Gastroenterology. 1989 Aug;97(2):357-63.

Ascorbic acid in the human stomach.

Sobala GM, Schorah CJ, Sanderson M, Dixon MF, Tompkins DS, Godwin P, Axon AT.

Gastroenterology Unit, General Infirmary, Leeds, United Kingdom.

Ascorbic acid, the reduced form of vitamin C, may protect against gastric cancer. Accordingly, this study assessed the
variability of ascorbic acid and vitamin C in the gastric juice of 77 patients with dyspepsia. There was a vitamin C
concentration gradient from gastric juice down to plasma in subjects with normal gastric mucosa, but not in those with
chronic gastritis. Patients with chronic gastritis had significantly lower gastric concentrations of vitamin C and ascorbic
acid, and ascorbic acid concentrations were especially low in subjects with hypochlorhydria. The presence of the
concentration gradient suggests that a mechanism for the secretion of vitamin C into the stomach exists. This is
compromised by chronic gastritis. The very low ascorbic acid concentrations in hypochlorhydria may be a consequence of
oxidation by bacterial nitrite. Those patients who by the Correa model are at greatest risk for gastric cancer have the
lowest gastric levels of ascorbic acid.

PMID: 2744355 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]