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Mechanism Of Ascorbate Protection Against Sepsis-Induced Capillary Blood Flow Impairment, Dan Secor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to an infection. The overwhelming inflammation has many deleterious effects, including cessation of capillary blood flow. This cessation may lead to organ failure and subsequent death, but the cause of cessation during sepsis is not fully understood. Ascorbate (reduced vitamin C) has been shown to restore capillary blood flow by an unknown mechanism. I hypothesized that activation of both platelets and the coagulation pathway in sepsis contributes to the cessation of capillary blood flow and that ascorbate protects against cessation by reducing platelet activation.

Using intravital microscopy in the mouse hindlimb skeletal muscle in …