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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect
of zn deficiency on tissue vitamin E status in weanling(stage I)
and young rats at 150g of body weight(stage II).The animals were
divided into three groups and fed a zn-adequate diet (50ppm) ad
libitum (C) , a zn-deficient diet (<1ppm) ad libitum (D) , or a
zn-adequate diet according to the pair feeding method (DP). In
stage I, 24 male weanling Wistar rats were fed for 4 wk;in stage
II, 30 mal rats at 150g of body weight were fed for 6 wk. The
same diet regimen was employed in our two stage experiments. Zn-
deficinet rats exhibited the symptoms of deficiency including
reduced food intake,growth retardation,scabby lesions and para-
keratosis on skin and mild alopecia et al.
Zn deficiency specifically reduced the .alpha.-tocopherol
concentrations of plasma and liver;elevated the.alpha.-tocopherol content of RBC and adrenal gland ; the .alpha.-tocopherol concen-trations in heart , lung and brain did not significantly differ among the three groups of rats. The .alpha.-tocopherol concen- trations of tissue in two stage experiments had the same tendency except testes. In stage Ⅱ,the .alpha.-tocopherol concentrations of testes was significantly higher in D group compared with C and DP group.
Zn deficiency specifically increased the phospholipid and
iron concentrations of liver in two stage experiments. The data
suggested that zn deficiency might aggravate lipid peroxidation.
The results indicated that zn deficiency may alter the
tissue utilization of dietary vitamin E .Zn deficiency specific-
ally resulted in lower .alpha.-tocopherol concentrations in
plasma and liver, suggesting that more .alpha.-tocopherol might
be comsumed to compensate for the depressed antioxidant
capability. This point remains to be explored.
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