Variations of Human Blood Cell Zinc in Disease.

Variations in the amount of zinc in human blood cells have been correlated with several diseases and morphological features. In 1949, Vallee and Gibson observed that in pernicious anemia erythrocyte zinc is elevated to a degree even exceeding what might be related to macrocytosis (1). A correlation of carbonic anhydrase activity with erythrocyte zinc content was demonstrated (2, 3). Subsequent reports concerning erythrocyte zinc have shown that it is decreased in the fetus and newborn (3) and is increased in some patients with chronic leukemias and sickle-cell anemia (1, 2, 4-8). The first evidence concerning leukocyte zinc abnormalities was reported in 1949 by Vallee, Gibson, Fluharty, and Nelson (1, 4), who noted markedly decreased zinc in leukocytes from patients with chronic leukemias. They also described a rise in leukocyte zinc towards normal when subjects with chronic granulocytic leukemia responded to therapy. We have reported on the decreased amount of zinc in leukocytes of patients with hepatic cirrhosis (9), and high zinc levels in eosinophils have been described (10, 11). This study was undertaken to evaluate the levels of erythrocyte and leukocyte zinc in a large group of patients with a variety of hematological and nonhematological diseases and to examine these cellular zinc levels in relationship to peripheral blood cell morphology, blood counts, leukocyte alkaline phosphatase activity, disease state, and treatment status. Included in the study are patients with acute and chronic leukemias, polycythemia rubra vera, myeloid metaplasia, megaloblastic and other anemias, eosinophilia owing to various causes, and pneumonia, and patients in the postpartum state.