Zinc (Labkit)

Nitro-PAPS | Colorimetric

Product description:

Zinc is a nutrient of fundamental biologic importance and is ubiquitous in mammalian metabolism. It plays a critical role in the structure of cell membranes and in the function of cells of the immune system. Zinc is required for the activity of hundreds of enzymes associated with carbohydrate and energy metabolism, protein synthesis and degradation, nucleic acid synthesis, heme biosynthesis, and carbon dioxide transport. Zinc deficiency occurs most commonly in association with starvation, PEM, and malabsorption syndromes. Zinc deficiency has been documented in association with conditions of relative immunocompromise including pregnancy, alcoholism, kidney disease, burns, inflammatory bowel disease, and HIV infection. Clinical manifestations of zinc deficiency include growth impairment, delayed sexual maturation, hypogonadism, impotence, oligospermia, alopecia, dysgeusia, night blindness, impaired wound healing, skin abnormalities, and impaired immunity.

Body stores of zinc are approximately 2 g and are distributed widely in a variety of enzymes. The zinc plasma pool is relatively small, representing only approximately 0.1% of total body zinc. Approximately five-fold greater amounts of zinc are found in whole blood, with erythrocytes accounting for approximately 75% of the total. However, approximately 85% of erythrocyte zinc is complexed within carbonic anhydrase and therefore does not exchange easily. Plasma Zn is the least sensitive indicator of Zn status. Concentrations may or may not decrease with Zn deficiency and may or may not increase with toxicity. Many factors affect plasma Zn concentration: fasting concentrations are higher in the morning; concentrations decrease after meals; men tend to have higher concentrations than premenopausal women; infants, children, and the aged. Therefore clinical diagnosis is not made on a single test result; integrated clinical and other laboratory data are used.