Vitamin C research based on vitamin C transporters

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19369
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 47:Pharmaceutical sciences and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Takada Tappei 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 教授 (90376468)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 豊田 優 防衛医科大学校(医学教育部医学科進学課程及び専門課程、動物実験施設、共同利用研究施設、病院並びに防衛, 分子生体制御学, 講師 (80650340)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ビタミン / トランスポーター / 栄養学 / 生理学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As a result of a series of studies on vitamin C transporters, we clarified the following two points:
1) We showed that SVCT1/SLC23A1, which plays an important role in the reabsorption of vitamin C from urine, may have a physiological function as a urate transporter. Importantly, we successfully calculated the contribution of Svct1 in the reabsorption of urate from urine by in vivo experiments using Svct1 knockout mice, and estimated the inhibitory effects of urate and vitamin C on Svct1-mediated transport and the possibility of competitive inhibition to each other.
2) We found that SVCT2/SLC23A2, a ubiquitously-expressed vitamin C transporter, also has urate transport activity.

Free Research Field

トランスポーター研究

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ビタミンCは生理的に重要な栄養素であるにもかかわらず、その輸送実体の多くは不明なままであり、ビタミンCの体内動態制御機構に関する理解は乏しい。本研究で得られた成果は、未だ全容が明らかになっていないビタミンCの体内動態制御機構とその生理学的重要性の一端を明らかにしたものであり、栄養学分野のみならず、医学・薬学分野における今後の発展が期待される。