Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity and Tumor Growth in Zinc-Deficient Mice

Dietary-induced zinc deficiency results in an impaired cell-mediated immune response to non-H2 allogenic tumor cells in mice. Animals maintained on a zinc-deficient diet for as little as 2 weeks develop a severe impairment in their ability to generate a cytotoxic response in the face of tumor challenge. This impairment is totally reversible by returning zinc-deficient mice to normal dietary zinc intake. Such animals now demonstrate a normal cytotoxic response to tumor challenge. If mice are treated with toxic doses of dietary zinc, a similar impairment of the cell-mediated cytotoxic response occurs. This suggests that either a deficiency or toxic level of zinc impairs the immune response to allogeneic tumor cells.