Zinc (Zn) has significant anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Zn deficiency can occur in subsets of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) especially those with malabsorption and impaired growth. Although supplemental Zn has significantly reduced infections in various disorders, its efficacy has not been thoroughly investigated in CF. We performed a double blind placebo controlled pilot st...

In the last 35 years, zinc (Zn) has been examined for its potential role in the disease multiple sclerosis (MS). This review gives an overview of the possible role of Zn in the pathogenesis of MS as well as a meta-analysis of studies having measured Zn in serum or plasma in patients with MS. Searching the databases PubMed and EMBASE as well as going through reference lists in included articles ...

Zn is an essential element for human growth. The nutritional adequacy of dietary Zn depends not only on the total Zn intake, but also on the type of food source (i.e. of plant or animal origin). We investigated the association between maternal dietary Zn intake from animal and plant food sources and fetal growth. A total of 918 pregnant women at 12-28 weeks of gestation were selected from the M...

The objective of this study is to identify an adequate zinc (Zn) foliar spray concentration which corrects Zn deficiency without disrupting other plant mineral contents, enhances plant growth, and thereby corn silage yield when grown on sandy soil. A field experiment was conducted using five Zn foliar spray concentrations (w/v): 0.03%, 0.07%, 0.10%, 0.14% and 0.18%. Zn sulfate (ZnSO4. 7H2O) was...

The simultaneous occurrence of Zn and Fe deficiencies in man has been known since the discovery of human Zn deficiency. However, it is not established that low Fe stores per se or Fe-deficiency anaemia infer low Zn status. Therefore our objective was to identify relationships between Zn and Fe status in premenopausal women without anaemia. We also examined the contribution of food frequencies a...

Order-disorder-order phase transitions in the clathrate-I Ba8Cu16P30 were induced and controlled by aliovalent substitutions of Zn into the framework. Unaltered Ba8Cu16P30 crystallizes in an ordered orthorhombic (Pbcn) clathrate-I superstructure that maintains complete segregation of metal and phosphorus atoms over 23 different crystallographic positions in the clathrate framework. The driving ...

There is evidence that excessive zinc (Zn(2+)) release from presynaptic terminals following brain injuries such as ischemia and severe epileptic seizures induces neuronal cell death. Apomorphine (Apo), a dopamine receptor agonist, has been shown to have pleiotropic biological functions. In this study, we investigated whether Apo protects cultured cortical neurons from neurotoxicity provoked by ...

Zinc is an essential metal ion for human growth and development, the disruption of cellular Zn(2+) homeostasis being implicated in several major disorders including Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and cancer. The molecular mechanisms of Zn(2+) physiology and pathology are insufficiently understood, however, owing in part to the lack of tools for measuring changes in intracellular Zn(2+) concentr...

Mg deficiency increases the concentration of Zn in the liver. We investigated the effect of Mg deficiency on the expression of Zn-regulating factors such as Zn transporters and metallothionein (MT) in the rat liver. Because Ca deficiency alleviates some of the effects of Mg deficiency, we also investigated the interactions associated with Ca and Mg deficiencies. Growing male rats were given a c...

Zinc has been considered as a vital constituent of proteins, including enzymes. Mobile reactive zinc (Zn(2+)) is the key form of zinc involved in signal transductions, which are mainly driven by its binding to proteins or the release of zinc from proteins, possibly via a redox switch. There has been growing evidence of zinc's critical role in cell signaling, due to its flexible coordination geo...