Zinc deficiency in Mexican American children: influence of zinc and other micronutrients on T cells, cytokines, and antiinflammatory plasma proteins.

Background: The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey suggested some Mexican American children are at risk of zinc deficiency.

Objective: We measured the effects of zinc and micronutrients or of micronutrients alone on indexes of cell-mediated immunity and antiinflammatory plasma proteins.

Design: Subjects (n = 54) aged 6-7 y were randomly assigned and treated in double-blind fashion in equal numbers with 20 mg Zn (as sulfate) and micronutrients or with micronutrients alone 5 d/wk for 10 wk.

Association between zinc pool sizes and iron stores in premenopausal women without anaemia.

The simultaneous occurrence of Zn and Fe deficiencies in man has been known since the discovery of human Zn deficiency. However, it is not established that low Fe stores per se or Fe-deficiency anaemia infer low Zn status. Therefore our objective was to identify relationships between Zn and Fe status in premenopausal women without anaemia.

Association between plasma zinc concentration and zinc kinetic parameters in premenopausal women.

The objective of this study was to measure relationships between plasma zinc (Zn) concentrations and Zn kinetic parameters and to measure relationships of Zn status with taste acuity, food frequency, and hair Zn in humans. The subjects were 33 premenopausal women not taking oral contraceptives and dietary supplements containing iron and Zn. Main outcomes were plasma Zn concentrations, Zn kinetic parameters based on the three-compartment mammillary model using 67Zn as a tracer, electrical taste detection thresholds, and food frequencies.

Porphyria cutanea tarda: multiplicity of risk factors including HFE mutations, hepatitis C, and inherited uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase deficiency.

The coexistence of factors considered to contribute to development of porphyria cutanea tarda was studied in 39 consecutive patients. Highly prevalent factors were alcohol intake in 79%, smoking in 86%, hepatitis C virus infection in 74%, estrogen use in 73% of 11 females, and at least one mutation in the HFE (hereditary hemochromatosis) gene in 65%. The C282Y mutation was found in 29%, H63D in 47%, and S65C in 0%.