ABSTRACT

Ascorbate is the only required vitamin needed solely for the maintenance of differentiated functions that are necessary at the tissue level. One such function requiring ascorbate is collagen biosynthesis. This chapter discusses the interaction of ascorbate with the collagen pathway. Except for the short transition period after addition of ascorbate, the flux of procollagen molecules to the outside remains unchanged until the cell can increase its rate of procollagen translation. This dependency on both a secretion rate constant and the procollagen pool size in determining the flux out of the cell has led to confusion in the literature about whether ascorbate does affect the procollagen secretion process. After ascorbate addition to primary avian tendon cells, a sixfold increase in secretion rates is followed by a sixfold increase in translation rates which is followed and overlapped by a sixfold increase in procollagen mRNA levels.