ABSTRACT
Radiochromium studies revealed further evidence of hemolysis, with markedly reduced erythrocyte half-life survival times in four of the six patients, which returned to normal when they were saturated with ascorbic acid. Traina demonstrated that normal citrated human erythrocyte was protected from in vitro hemolysis in hypotonic solutions by the addition of ascorbic acid. It would seem that some of these conditions might interfere with ascorbic acid metabolism in two ways by impairing tissue ascorbate storage and by causing hemolysis. Such disorders may result only in episodic hemolysis during periods of acute stress or may be associated with chronic severe hemolysis on a continuous basis. One wonders whether it is a high dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA) level, an abnormally low AA/DHAA ratio, or a grossly abnormal blood and tissue redox potential that should be considered as the cause of the cell damage, for all tend to occur together.
