BACKGROUND Adjustments in zinc absorption and endogenous excretion maintain zinc homeostasis in nonpregnant adults fed low-zinc diets. The effects on zinc homeostasis of a low zinc intake during pregnancy and lactation have not been described in a longitudinal study. OBJECTIVE We examined longitudinal changes in fractional zinc absorption (FZA) and zinc kinetics in 10 healthy Brazilian women ...

Zinc deficiency is a global nutritional disorder affecting majority of healthy people rather than those suffering from chronic diseases, affects about one third of people around the world and thereby causing clinical manifestations. This work represents new modality to increase the intestinal absorptivity and bioavailability of zinc from the diet by replacing traditional bulk form by zinc nanop...

Community-based data relating to factors influencing zinc deficiency among preschool children in India are inadequate. Data of a large, double-blinded, randomized, controlled zinc-supplementation trial were used for assessing the descriptive epidemiology of zinc deficiency among children aged 6-35 months (n = 940). In total, 609 children were followed up for 120 days for information on morbidit...

Zinc homeostasis is crucial for an adequate function of the immune system. Zinc deficiency as well as zinc excess result in severe disturbances in immune cell numbers and activities, which can result in increased susceptibility to infections and development of especially inflammatory diseases. This review focuses on the role of zinc in regulating intracellular signaling pathways in innate as we...

The age-related decline in lymphocyte development and function coincides with impaired zinc status in the elderly. Thymic involution and reduced immune responsiveness are classic hallmarks of both aging and zinc deficiency, resulting in decreased host defense and an increased susceptibility to infections. Thus, compromised zinc status associated with aging may be an important contributing facto...

OBJECTIVE to evaluate whether oral supplementation with zinc or zinc/arginine increases the antibody response to influenza vaccine or modulates the lymphocyte phenotype in elderly subjects. DESIGN a randomized controlled trial with two supplemented groups and one control group. SETTING a community nursing home. PARTICIPANTS 384 subjects aged 64-100 (mean age 82 years) examined in three se...

Host zinc deficiency halts the proliferation of the mouse Ehrlich ascites tumor. The major site of measurable cellular zinc depletion is a cytosolic zinc binding protein. This protein is characterized as a metallothionein on the basis of its presence as two isoproteins which behave on DEAESephadex and in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis like metallothioneins, the lack of protein absorbance at...

We examined the effect of zinc on rat neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) expressed in Xenopus oocytes as simple heteromers of alpha2, alpha3, or alpha4 and beta2 or beta4. Coapplication of zinc with low concentrations of acetylcholine (</=EC(10)) resulted in differential effects depending on receptor subunit composition. The alpha2beta2, alpha2beta4, alpha3beta4, alpha4beta2, a...

Zinc is an essential nutrient because of its role in catalysis and in protein stabilization, but excess zinc is deleterious. We distinguished four nutritional zinc states in the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: toxic, replete, deficient, and limited. Growth is inhibited in zinc-limited and zinc-toxic cells relative to zinc-replete cells, whereas zinc deficiency is visually asymptomatic but disti...