• Kazuki Ide, Hiroshi Yamada, Keizo Umegaki, Katsuki Mizuno, Nobuko Kawakami, Yuka Hagiwara, Mizuki Matsumoto, Hidefumi Yoshida, Kang Kim, Emi Shiosaki, Tsunehiro Yokochi, and Kiyoshi Harada.
• Department of Drug Evaluation and Informatics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan.
• Nutrition. 2015 Feb 1;31(2):406-8.

ObjectivesVitamin C is a major antioxidant and also is known as a neuromodulator in dopaminergic neurons. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between lymphocyte and plasma vitamin C levels in various stages of Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsSixty-two individuals with PD (age 71 ± 8.8 y [mean ± SD]) being treated at Shizuoka General Hospital from December 2007 to August 2013 were consecutively recruited. PD severity was classified using the Hoehn-Yahr scale for staging PD. Fasting blood samples were collected, and plasma and lymphocyte vitamin C levels were measured. The association between PD severity and vitamin C levels was estimated by ordinal logistic regression with confounding variables.ResultsThe distribution of Hoehn-Yahr stages in patients was as follows: stage I, 7; II, 28; III, 16; and IV, 11. Lymphocyte vitamin C levels in patients with severe PD were significantly lower (odds ratio [OR], 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80-0.97; P < 0.01) compared with those at less severe stages. Plasma vitamin C levels also tended to be lower in patients with severe PD; however, this was not significant (OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.96-1.00; P = 0.09).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that lymphocyte vitamin C levels in the peripheral blood may be a potentially useful biomarker for the progression of PD.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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