ABSTRACT
The liver normally constitutes the largest store of ascorbic acid in the body, but when dietary ascorbic acid is discontinued, the guinea pig liver ascorbic acid level falls rapidly. M. A Spellberg and R. W Keeton found marked fatty changes in the liver of guinea pigs after vitamin C depletion. W.O Russell and C. P Callaway observed pathological changes in the parenchymal cells of the liver in scorbutic guinea pigs. M. N Sheridan and G. H Bourne made electron microscopic studies of liver specimens from normal, scorbutic, and pair-fed control guinea pigs. O. A Bessey observed fatty infiltration of the liver in guinea pigs with varying degrees of vitamin C deficiency. A. H Conney observed that vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs are more sensitive to the muscle-relaxing drug zoxazolamine than are normal guinea pigs, due to decreased activity of the enzyme system in liver microsomes that metabolizes this drug.
