A new study has shown that regular consumption of alcohol can weaken the ability of the pancreas to absorb the vitamin C.
“Reducing the level of vitamin C and other essential micronutrients disrupts the normal activity of the cells in the pancreas that increases the risk of developing pancreatitis and other pancreatic diseases,” says lead researcher Hamid Said University of California, Irvine, USA.
The researchers decided to study how alcohol affects the ability of the pancreas to absorb the vitamin C. In the study, they first identified a protein called sodium-dependent vitamin C Transporter-2 (SVCT-2), which is responsible for transporting vitamin C into cells of the pancreas.
During experiments on mice the researchers subjected cells of the pancreas to the effects of level of alcohol, the same alcohol concentration in the blood of patients with chronic alcoholism. In addition, mice were sitting on a diet in which 25% of the total calories consumed was alcohol.
The results showed that the cells of the pancreas, which are directly exposed to alcohol, as well as cells of the pancreas in mice, which “fed” with alcohol, had lower levels of SVCT-2, which led to blocking the ability of cells to absorb vitamin C.
The study was published in the “American Journal of Physiology — Cell Physiology”.
