Vitamin C for wound healing

Ascorbic acid is a well known immune system booster and is included in almost all multivitamins and food supplement. Also, it has been reported over the years, to have an important role in wound healing. Oftentimes, surgeons prescribed Vitamin C to patients who have under gone an operation. Technically speaking, Vitamin C promotes collagen formation necessary for tissue formation. Futhermore, it has been reported that prolonged exposure of cultures of human connective-tissue cells to ascorbate (the active form of ascorbic acid) induced an eight-fold increase in the synthesis of collagen with no increase in the rate of synthesis of other proteins (Murad et al., 1981). Thus, it helps in the formation of polypeptide chain of procollagen by the hydroxylation of proline (one of the amino acid needed for collagen formation) residue that secures the chain in the triple helix of the collagen, and the hydroxylation of lysine (another amino acid) into hydroxylysine that needed to permit the cross-linking of the triple helices into the fibers and network of tissues.