The influence of the serum vitamin C levels on oxidative stress biomarkers in elderly women

Objectives: To verify if there is influence of the vitamin C blood levels on oxidative stress markers in elderly people. In order to verify it, women from a public retirement home were compared to non-institutionalized ones; all of them were in healthy conditions. Design and methods: Vitamin C, albumin, reduced glutathione, malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyls and δ-aminolevulinate dehydratase activity (ALA-D) were analyzed in older women either from a public retirement home (n = 45) or non-institutionalized (n = 22). Results: The institutionalized ones showed significant decrease for vitamin C levels (p = 0.002), ALA-D and MDA (p < 0.05). Correlations were found between vitamin C and both albumin and ALA-D, also between ALA-D and both protein carbonyls and age. Conclusions: The institutionalized women presented decreased vitamin C, albumin, MDA and ALA-D compared to non-institutionalized. Thus, it could be suggested that vitamin C tends to protect blood thiolic proteins. Moreover, its blood δ-aminoevulinate dehydratase activity seemed to be an additional biomarker of oxidation stress in healthy elderly.