*2.1. Animals*

Gulo−/− mice were bred in-house from an established homozygous colony as previously described [19]. Vitamin C *sufficient* mice were fed *ad libitum* with regular chow and water supplemented with vitamin C (0.330 g/L) renewed twice per week. Vitamin C *deficient* mice were generated by reducing vitamin C supplementation (0.033 g/L) for one week, followed by complete removal of dietary vitamin C for an additional two weeks. Others have shown that this reduced supplementation significantly decreases the concentration of VitC in immune cells, plasma and organs [20,21].
