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Effect of Zinc, Certain Related Dietary Factors and Age on the Histamine Content of Chick Tissues¹

Departments of Biochemistry and Poultry Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the mechanism by which dietary histamine alleviates the "perosis-like" or "arthritis-like" abnormality of the hock joint of zinc-deficient chicks. Neither feed restriction nor dietary zinc had an effect on the histamine content of blood, lung, liver, kidney, small intestine, skin, and bone of chicks from 1 to 15 weeks of age. In liver, lung, small intestine, and blood, histamine content increased at least twofold during the 14-week period of observation. Blood plasma levels of histamine, likewise, were unaffected by dietary zinc at 3 and 4 weeks of age. Liver and kidney histamine levels increased significantly in response to dietary histamine only if the diet contained supplemental zinc, but did not respond to dietary histidine. If the chicks were fasted for 24 hours prior to being killed, dietary histamine increased plasma histamine levels of zinc-supplemented, but not of zinc-deficient chicks. When the chicks were not fasted, the feeding of histamine increased plasma histamine irrespective of dietary zinc. Histamine content of plasma was not changed by the feeding of diets based on egg white, but tended to increase in unfasted chicks when histidine was fed. These results indicate that the alleviatory effect of histamine on the joint abnormality caused by zinc deficiency is not a result of a decreased ability of zinc-deficient chicks to store histamine.

KEY WORDS: • zinc deficiency • tissue histamine • chicks

¹ Approved for publication by the Director of the Research Division of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Supported in part by a Predoctoral USPHS Fellowship no. (5-F1-GM-29, 472-03) and by Public Health Service Grant no. AM-05606 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.

Manuscript received 11 January 1971.