Chondrocytes present in articular cartilage survive as a resident cell popu
lation throughout the lifespan of the individual organism. However, articul
ar chondrocytes as other cells also undergo apoptosis and there is an ever
increasing list of diverse stimuli that can induce this phenomenon in vitro
. Our main interest was to investigate potential cytotoxic effects of vitam
in C (L-ascorbic acid) on human articular chondrocytes. The present study s
uggests that vitamin C can induce apoptosis in a cell culture of chondrocyt
es after 18 h of cultivation. Apoptosis-inducing activity of L-ascorbic aci
d is dose dependent and significantly affected by the presence of serum. Th
e increased number of vitamin C induced apoptotic cells was associated with
DNA fragmentation and morphological changes of the cells.