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Zinc Content of Blood Cellular Components and Lymph Node and Spleen Lymphocytes in Severely Zinc-Deficient Rats¹

United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND 58202

Several investigators have suggested that the measurement of leukocyte zinc may be useful for the assessment of zinc nutriture. However, in an earlier study, we found that the methods used did not adequately separate platelets from the different leukocyte populations. We subsequently developed a method which does adequately separate platelets, mononucleated cells (MNC), polymorphonucleated cells (PMN), and erythrocytes (RBC) from a single blood sample. This method was applied to a study of severe zinc deficiency in adult male rats. Significant reductions in plasma and femur zinc indicated severe zinc deficiency in the zinc-deficient animals compared with pair-fed or ad libitum-fed control rats in two separate experiments. However, we noted no differences in the zinc content of the MNC, PMN, RBC or lymph node lymphocytes, on a per cell basis, between the zinc-deficient and ad libitum- or pair-fed control groups of rats. A minor, but not significant (P > 0.05) reduction of platelet zinc was noted in zinc-deficient rats in two separate studies. These data indicate that the zinc contents of blood cellular components are not sensitive indicators of zinc deficiency in rats.

KEY WORDS: • zinc • zinc assessment • erythrocyte zinc • platelet zinc • leukocyte zinc • lymphocyte zinc

¹ Portions of these data were presented at the annual meeting of FASEB, St. Louis MO, Fed. Proc. 43:670 (1984), and the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, Washington, DC, Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 39: 688 (1984).

² Present address: USDA, ARS, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111.

Manuscript received 15 January 1985. Revision accepted 2 May 1985.