Vitamin C may exert variable effects on viability and proliferation of HeLa cells exhibiting high and low chromosomal instability.

Background: Chromosomal instability (CIN), defined as abnormality in chromosome structure or number, is the hallmark of malignancies. The role of vitamin C in cancer treatment is controversial and its effect on CIN is still an open field of research. In this work, we tried to study the effect of high-dose L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) on CIN-induced (CINhi = CIN high) and non-CIN-induced (CINlo = CIN low) cervical cancer cells.