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Copper Interference with the Intestinal Absorption of Zinc-65 by Rats

U. S. Plant Soil and Nutrition Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York

Earlier studies demonstrated that high levels of zinc interfered with ⁶⁴Cu absorption and indicated that this interference was mediated at the intestinal level. The studies reported here were conducted to determine if the reverse were also true, that is, would copper depress ⁶⁵Zn absorption and, if so, what was the site of the interference? The ⁶⁵Zn was put into isolated duodenal segments and copper was administered either intraduodenally or intraperitoneally. When both copper and ⁶⁵Zn were put into the ligated segment, subsequent absorption of ⁶⁵Zn was depressed. When ⁶⁵Zn was given intraduodenally and copper was given intraperitoneally, however, no depression in the subsequent absorption of ⁶⁵Zn resulted. Copper concentrations in all of the sampled, nonintestinal tissues were as high or higher in the rats dosed intraperitoneally as in the rats dosed intraduodenally. This would indicate that copper did not depress ⁶⁵Zn uptake by first building up to some "critical" level in nonintestinal tissues and subsequently blocking zinc absorption. Rather, the results of these experiments suggest that copper interference with ⁶⁵Zn uptake was mediated at the intestinal level. These observations, and those reported previously, lead to the tentative conclusion that there is a mutual antagonism between zinc and copper during the absorption process and this antagonism apparently takes place either in or on the intestinal epithelium.