ABSTRACT
This work included 20 male healthy elderly persons aged from 65 to 80 years and 7 young healthy control subjects. Both the elderly and the young individuals were non smokers and of the same socioeconomic standard. All of them were not allowed to receive any drugs for 10 days prior to blood sampling and neutrophil isolation. Specific tests were performed including measuring the chemotactic index, the [NBT] reduction test and a more recent and specific test [chemiluminescence which measured the phagocytosis and intracellular killing]. The results showed that chemotactic index and NTB reduction were inferior in the elderly group in comparison with young controls, while there was no difference as regard chemiluminescence test. The tests were repeated again 10 days after oral administration of 1.5 mg vitamin C/day in divided doses to only 10 of the elderly subjects who showed the least neutrophil functions. The results showed significant increase in all neutrophil function tests after vitamin C. It was suggested that combined effects of aging and malnutrition particularly hypovitaminosis C might lead to a profound impairment of neutrophil functions. Also, the detection of subclinical vitamin C deficiency and the addition of the vitamin to those suffering from infection is of particular importance to resist the predilection for infection in the aging population