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Effect of Zinc Deficiency on Blood Glutathione Levels

Louisville Veterans Administration Medical Center and the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40292

The specific effect of zinc deficiency on blood glutathione (GSH) concentrations has not been clearly demonstrated, for earlier results could have been due to differences in dietary intake. To clarify this, we determined blood GSH concentrations over a 17-day period in young, mature rats fed a zinc-deficient diet and compared them with pair-fed controls. Glutathione concentrations based on hemoglobin content increased in both groups but at different rates. After 17 days, the GSH levels increased 20% in deficient rats and 29% in control rats (P < 0.005). The GSH levels in deficient rats were 11% lower than in controls by 10 days (P < 0.025) and remained significantly lower thereafter. These results indicate that the decrease in blood GSH levels was a specific result of zinc deficiency.

KEY WORDS: • blood glutathione • zinc deficiency

Manuscript received 25 November 1980.

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