Studies on Semen: III. Determination of Vitamin C in Semen

Lee, Hee Yong; Lee, Hak Song

Abstract

It is generally accepted that urinary excretion of vitamin c increases when the blood concentration reaches the threshold of 1.0 mg/dl. Urinary excretion reaches a maximum 2-3 hours after loading with vitamin c, returning to normal after approximately 24 hours. If there is no vitamin c deficiency, approximately 50% of the loading dose is readily excreted within 24 hours. In the group B and C of this series, in which initial blood concentrations of the vitamin c was relatively low, the blood and urinary concentration increased noticeably after the loading. But the groups with higher initial blood levels did not experience increased concentration in the blood of vitamin c after the loading. Seminal vitamin c concentration in groups A, C and D increased after the loading, but in group E initially higher in seminal concentration was unchanged even after the loading. In 9 of 14 cases, motility of the sperms seemed to improve to a certain extent, though not very significantly after the vitamin c loading. Reed suggested in comparing the sperm velocity within a distance of 0.05 mm. That even 0.1 of a second might be a very important time difference. In this series the velocity changed from 1.66 to 1.52 seconds and the difference, 0.14 seconds, might be significant in fertilization.