Abstract
Abstract
The interrelationship among burn injury, zinc metabolism, and circulating T-lymphocyte distribution was studied using a rat model. Sixty Sprague-Dawley male rats were fed a zinc-deficient (<0.5 ppm) semipurified diet and given daily subcutaneous injections of 1 mg Zn/kg body wt for 14 days. On Day 15, 24 of the rats were subjected to a full-thickness dorsal scald injury of 30% of the total body surface. Half of the burned rats were continued on the zinc supplementation (BS) while the other half were maintained on the zinc-deficient (BD) regimen by injecting physiological saline. Feces and urine were collected for 10 days postburn and subsequently analyzed for zinc content. On Day 10 postburn all the rats were sacrificed. Zinc bound to cytosol proteins in hepatic and intestinal mucosal tissue was determined by gel column chromatography procedures and T-lymphocyte subset distributions were determined by flow cytometry. No significant difference (P < 0.05) in total endogenous zinc excretion was seen among treatment groups. A dramatic increase was seen in zinc bound to a 12,000 mol wt protein in hepatic tissue from the BS group only. The only significant (P < 0.05) change in T-lymphocyte populations was an increase in T-suppressor cells in the BD group.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.