Restoration of the Antibody Mediated Response of Zinc/Caloric Deficient Neonatal Mice

Abstract

Two-Week-old A/J mice were placed on diets containing either adequate or inadequate amounts of zinc. Because of the difficulties encountered in working with mice of this age, it was not possible to include a pair-fed control to assess the degree of inanition accompanying the deficiency in zinc. After a period of 7 or 11 days on the diets, part of the mice from each treatment group were immunized with SRBC. Their anti-SRBC plaque forming capacity was assessed five days later. In addition to a reduction in body and thymus weights, the IgM and IgG responses of zinc/caloric-defi-cient neonatal males to SRBC ranged from 7-35% that of zinc-adequate controls. The response to dextran was similarly reduced after seven days of zinc/caloric-deficiency, with the deficient males producing only 40% as many anti-dextran plaques as zinc positive controls. Although these effects were observed in both male and female neonatal mice, the time course over which the immune depression occurred was somewhat longer for deficient females. The remaining unimmunized deficient mice were then fed diet containing adequate amounts of zinc and the ability of the deficient neonates to repair the antibody mediated response was evaluated. After only four days on the zinc-adequate diet, previously zinc/caloric-deficient male mice were able to completely repair both the IgM and IgG responses. Furthermore, the IgG response of the previously deficient mice was more than double that of the control mice. When immunized 15 days after zinc supplementation, the IgM and IgG responses of the previously zinc/caloric-deficient male and female mice had returned to control values.