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Rat Platelet Aggregation Impaired by Short-Term Zinc Deficiency¹

Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211

Platelets in plasma from immature male rats fed a complete purified diet exhibited biphasic aggregation in response to 0.2 µM adenosine diphosphate (ADP). Rats fed the diet without added zinc (<1 ppm) for 1 week failed to show the secondary phase of aggregation. Aggregation in response to collagen and arachidonic acid was almost totally absent in the zinc-deficient plasma, but the response to the divalent cation ionophore, A23187, was normal. The results demonstrate that zinc is essential for platelet function and suggest that it is involved in the platelet metabolism of arachidonic acid.

KEY WORDS: • zinc deficiency • platelet aggregation • bleeding tendency • arachidonic acid

¹ A contribution from the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, Journal Series No. 8412. Supported in part by the Public Health Grant HL 11614.

² A Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Nutrition Area, University of Missouri.

³ To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 28 March 1980.