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Effect of Zinc Deficiency on the Immune Response of the Young Adult A/J Mouse¹

Department of Biochemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of dietary levels of zinc on the immune response of the young adult A/J mouse. Six week old mice were fed ad libitum diets containing adequate (25 µg Zn/g), marginal (2.5 µg Zn/g) and deficient (0.5 µg Zn/g) levels of zinc. When the mice were immunized with a hapten-carrier antigen on the same day that they were fed the above diets, there was no significant difference in the antibody titer among the three groups after 4 weeks even though the thymuses of the zinc deficient mice were markedly atrophied. However in a subsequent experiment, the mice were fed the diets 4 weeks prior to immunization with sheep red blood cells (SRBC). Under these circumstances, the zinc deficient mice produced only 10% and the marginal zinc deficient mice, 25% of the number of anti-SRBC plasmacytes as the control mice. Reconstitution of the zinc deficient mice with thymocytes prior to immunization restored immunity and enabled these mice to produce 61% as many anti-SRBC plasmacytes as the control mice. It is concluded from these experiments that zinc deficiency caused rapid atrophy of the thymus and interfered with T-cell helper function in the young adult mouse but had little effect on the B-cells for the time periods studied.

KEY WORDS: • zinc deficiency • mice • immune response • thymus

¹ Supported in part by Grant GRSP 1-1976, U.S. Public Health Service, the National Health Institute (HD-10586), and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 8005.

Manuscript received 7 March 1977.

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