Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 Inhibitors could Improve the Bioavailability of Vitamin C at the Kidney in Diabetes Treatment

Abstract

It is known that plasma (serum) vitamin C level is lowered in diabetic patients by some mechanisms including renal loss [1]. Vitamin C and glucose filtered from the glomerulus are presumed to be reabsorbed at the renal proximal tubule by sodium-vitamin C co-transporter (SVCT) 1 and sodium-glucose co-transporter (SGLT) 2, respectively [2-4]. In the enterocyte that expresses SVCT 1 and SGLT 1, it was demonstrated in vitro that cellular uptake of vitamin C was inhibited by increasing concentrations of glucose in medium, which was not observed at the presence of phlorizin, a non-specific SGLT inhibitor [2]. If such an effect is applied to renal proximal tubular cells, it is hypothesized that SGLT 2 inhibitors can improve the bioavailability of vitamin C in diabetes treatment.