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Effects of Dietary Zinc on Zinc Enzymes in the Rat¹

Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

The effects of alterations in dietary zinc on tissue levels of four zinc metalloenzymes (carbonic anhydrase, lactic dehydrogenase, glutamic dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase) in rats have been studied. Groups of 4-week-old rats have been fed diets ad libitum containing 1, 20 (control), and 1200 ppm zinc for 2 or 4 weeks. In an attempt to distinguish between zinc deficiency per se from the effects of inanition that accompanies zinc deficiency, rats in a fourth group receiving 20 ppm zinc were pair-fed with the zinc-deficient group. Tissue enzyme analyses at the end of the experimental periods indicated that zinc deficiency per se significantly depressed carbonic anhydrase activity in stomach and pituitary; lactic dehydrogenase in heart, kidney and gastrocnemius muscle; alkaline phosphatase in duodenum, kidney, stomach and serum during at least one of the periods studied. The significantly decreased carbonic anhydrase activities in brain and red cells, and the decreased alkaline phosphatase in heart of zinc-deficient animals seem to be in part related to alterations in food intake. Feeding of high zinc diets depressed carbonic anhydrase activity and increased alkaline phosphatase in some tissues when compared to ad libitum-fed rats. Mitochondrial glutamic dehydrogenase was not affected by low or high dietary zinc intakes in any tissues analyzed.

KEY WORDS: • zinc • zinc metalloenzymes • zinc deficiency

¹ Supported in part by Public Health Service Contract no. 86-88-177 and by the Fund for Research and Teaching, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.

Manuscript received 8 January 1978.