Determination of intracellular ascorbic acid using tandem mass spectrometry.

Ascorbic acid is involved in a variety of biological events. Nevertheless, its detailed intracellular behavior remains unexplored due to a lack of sensitive analytical methods. Here we report a method using HPLC-ESI-MS/MS achieving the lowest detection limit ever reported (1 pg), to provide mechanistic insight into the intracellular ascorbic acid physiology.