A clinical trial to evaluate the efficiency of oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis was conducted. One-hundred and four patients with parasitologically proven cutaneous leishmaniasis were included in the trial. Patients were assigned randomly to receive 2.5, 5 or 10 mg/kg of zinc sulphate orally, and a control group of patients did not receive any treatment. All patients were followed up for 45 days. At the end of the follow-up period, lesions were assessed and parasitological proof of cure or otherwise was sought. Results showed that the cure rate for the 2.5 mg/kg group was 83.9%, for the 5 mg/kg treatment group it was 93.1% and for the 10 mg/kg treatment group it was 96.9%. No lesions in the control group showed any sign of healing during the follow-up period. Therefore, oral zinc sulphate can be recommended as a very safe therapy for cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Introduction: There is increasing evidence on association between vitamin D insufficiency and diabetes, but the impact of vitamin D status on glycaemic status and vice versa, has not been well reported. Our aim was to investigate the level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(25(OH)D) and the prevalence of vitamin D abnormalities in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) type2 and in those without diabetes; and to ascertain the impact of 25(OH)D levels on glycaemic control and vice versa.

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1. Purified caeruloplasmin was shown to inhibit lipid autoxidation induced by ascorbic acid or inorganic iron in the following systems: (a) an emulsion of linolenic acid in water; (b) an untreated ox brain homogenate in phosphate buffer; (c) a similar homogenate whose susceptibility to autoxidation had been abolished by dialysis or by heating and then restored by the above pro-oxidants. 2. The optimum conditions for this antioxidant activity were studied. 3. Caeruloplasmin did not inhibit autoxidation by u.v. irradiation in dialysed or preheated homogenates. 4. The apoprotein (without copper) had no antioxidant activity, whereas CuSO4 alone was much less effective as an antioxidant. 5. Iron-free transferrin also had some antioxidant activity.

Background and Objectives: Zinc deficiency often occurs in patients with diabetes. Therefore, the relationship between zinc status and progression of nephropathy in diabetes has been explored. Materials and Methods:Total 300 diabetic patients and 100 non-diabetic healthy subjects (age matched) were selected followed by informed consent and divided into five groups as I: non-diabetic normotensive control; II: diabetic normotensive; III: diabetic hypertensive; IV: diabetic normotensive with microalbuminuria; V: diabetic hypertensive with microalbuminuria. The blood samples of all subjects were collected and analyzed for serum zinc, serum creatinine, and estimated-glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR). Urine zinc, creatinine and microalbuminuria concentrations were determined.