Species Difference in regard to the Biosynthesis of Ascorbic Acid

Abstract

IN previous reports^1,2 from this laboratory, it has been shown that the liver tissue of mammals such as the cow, goat and rat (but not the guinea pig) could produce strikingly large amounts of ascorbic acid in vitro with D-glucuronolactone as substrate in presence of cyanide. This did not occur in the absence of cyanide, and no other substrate except L-gulonolactone was effective. It was, however, found^1,2 that the liver tissue of birds such as the chicken and the pigeon, which are known to synthesize their own requirements of ascorbic acid, failed to synthesize ascorbic acid under these conditions. Grollman and Lehninger³ have meanwhile shown by their method that, as opposed to mammals, the capacity for synthesizing ascorbic acid in the birds and reptiles they studied, namely, the chicken, pigeon and tortoise, resides in the kidney tissues.