Vitamin C induced apoptosis in human articular chondrocytes

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.