Ascorbic Acid

Ascorbic Acid is a naturally occurring lactone that is produced by plants and many animals, but not humans or other primates. It acts as an electron donor (i.e. reducing agent), and shows antioxidant activity, particularly against reactive oxygen species. Ascorbic Acid is a cofactor for monooxygenase and dioxygenase as well as other enzymes (Arrigoni & De Tullio; Du et al.).

REPROGRAMMING

• Increases the efficiency of reprogramming mouse and human fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (Esteban et al.) partly through JHDM1 histone demethylase activity (Wang et al.).
• Prevents aberrant DNA methylation of the Dlk1-Dio3 locus during reprogramming of mouse somatic cells to iPS cells (Stadtfeld et al.).

MAINTENANCE AND SELF-RENEWAL

• Supports proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells (Choi et al.).

DIFFERENTIATION

• Promotes differentiation of osteoblasts from human and mouse mesenchymal cells (Pittenger et al.; Tropel et al.).
• Promotes differentiation of osteoblasts from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells (zur Nieden et al.).
• Enhances differentiation of cardiomyocytes from mouse ES cells (Takahashi et al.).