A Syndrome of Acute Zinc Loss

Abstract

Oral administration of the amino acid histidine to six patients with progressive systemic sclerosis produced anorexia, taste ans smell dysfunction, changes in mentation, and cerebellar dysfunction in each patient; these changes were associated with significant decreases in serum zinc concentration and significant increases in urinary zinc excretion. Administration of zinc ion, even with continued histidine administration, returned each of the signs and symptoms to or toward normal within 8 to 24 hours in each patient at the same time that correction of the serum zinc concentration occurred. The signs and symptoms noted constitute a syndrome related to acute zinc loss.

Current status of zinc in health and disease states.

“…Anorexia, growth retardation, and impaired taste and olfactory sensation, are early features as is mood alteration. Most neurological features have been described in adults with induced zinc deficiency (Henkin et al, 1975b); jitteriness and altered behaviour have been (Sivasubramanian and Henkin, 1978). Cutaneous signs range from a rough skin to a severe eczematous dermatitis affecting the digits, perineum, mouth, and nasolabial folds.…”

Effect of Celastrus paniculatus on trace elements of cerebellum in ageing albino rats

“…24,25 Cerebellar dysfunction has been associated with acute zinc loss. 26 Rats, zinc deficient in prenatal and early postnatal periods develop abnormal brain. 27 Decrease in zinc content affects the axonal transport, neuronal microtubule and tubulin synthesis and assembly.…”

Zinc transport across an in vitro blood-brain barrier model

“…Behavioral abnormalities have also been observed without changes in plasma zinc [8] or brain zinc [33], suggesting that zinc deprivation can induce behavioral dysfunction without a significant disruption in brain zinc homeostasis. And there is at least one report of cerebellar dysfunction, mental changes, anorexia, and taste and smell dysfunction in human subjects experiencing an acutely brief decrease in plasma zinc [7].…”

“…Less severe maternal zinc deficiency is not teratogenic but does impair cognitive development and leads to behavioral and learning disorders in the offspring [1,5]. Zinc deficiency will also cause behavioral abnormalities when it occurs in adolescents and adults [6][7][8][9].…”