The deficiency in vitamin C definitely accelerates the aging process, Japanese researchers found in their experiments on genetically engineered mice, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

The research team, headed by experts from Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, first created through genetic engineering mice that lost their natural ability to create vitamin C internally, then fed them with less than the normal daily requirement of vitamin C.

It took just six months for half of the engineered mice to die of old age, only a quarter of the life-span of another control group's normal mice, researchers said.

The researchers also set up a group of engineered mice and deprived them of vitamin C. Those mice developed a scurvy, a disease that arises in humans deficient in vitamin C, and all died in about six months, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

The researchers boast their finding's contribution to studies on the mechanism behind aging.

Source: Xinhua