Zinc deficiency is prevalent throughout the world, including the USA. Severe and moderate deficiency of zinc is associated with hypogonadism in men. However, the effect of marginal zinc deficiency on serum testosterone concentration is not known. We studied the relationship between cellular zinc concentrations and serum testosterone cross-sectionally in 40 normal men, 20 to 80 y of age. In four...

Zinc deficiency has serious wide-ranging health consequences and is thought to be one of the most prevalent micronutrient deficiencies in the world. However, reliable indicators or biomarkers to assess zinc status are not available at present. Indirect indicators such as the prevalence of stunting or anemia, iron deficiency, as well as more direct indicators such as plasma zinc concentrations a...

Zinc is known to play an important role for immune-functions. However, the effects of zinc-deficiency on the immune response system from the point of view of the distribution changes of the number of total white blood cells (WBCs) are still primarily unknown. Therefore, the effects of zinc-deficiency on the number of total WBCs, neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil, monocyte and lymphocytes (T lymp...

The role of neuropeptide Y (NPY) in feeding behavior and zinc deficiency-induced anorexia has been controversial because hypothalamic NPY levels are elevated in both zinc deficiency and food restriction. A recent report shows that while NPY is released from terminals in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus of food-restricted animals, this release is significantly impaired in zinc-def...

BACKGROUND Zinc is an essential trace element for the immune system. The zinc deficiency diminishes antibody- and cell-mediated responses in man. Lymphopenia and thymic atrophy are usually the early hallmarks of zinc deficiency. Surprisingly, only scarce data are available about polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) functions in infants with zinc deficiency. We present the results of immunological ana...

Intrauterine and postnatal zinc restriction may result in an adverse environment for the development of cardiovascular and renal systems. This study evaluated the effects of moderate zinc deficiency during fetal life, lactation, and/or postweaning growth on systolic blood pressure, renal function, and morphology in adult life. Female Wistar rats received low (8 ppm) or control (30 ppm) zinc die...

Zinc deficiency has recently been linked to the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as environmental risk factor. With an estimated 17% of the world population being at risk of zinc deficiency, especially zinc deficiency during pregnancy might be a common occurrence, also in industrialized nations. On molecular level, zinc deficiency has been shown to affect a signaling pathway at gluta...

Community-based data relating to factors influencing zinc deficiency among preschool children in India are inadequate. Data of a large, double-blinded, randomized, controlled zinc-supplementation trial were used for assessing the descriptive epidemiology of zinc deficiency among children aged 6-35 months (n = 940). In total, 609 children were followed up for 120 days for information on morbidit...

Recent evidence, derived primarily from measurements of hair zinc levels, has indicated that body zinc stores may be relatively low in infants and children less than 4 years of age in the United States (Hambidge et al., 1972). Moreover, the correlation observed between low hair zinc levels (70 p.p.m. or less), poor appetite, and low growth centiles suggested the occurrence of symptomatic zinc d...

BACKGROUND Gestational zinc deficiency has been confirmed to impair the infant immune function. However, knowledge about effects of maternal mild zinc deficiency during pregnancy on hepatitis B vaccine responsiveness in offspring is limited. In this report, we aimed to examine how maternal zinc deficiency during pregnancy influences humoral and cellular immune responses to hepatitis B vaccinati...