Abstract

 

bifly Wistar-Albino male rats were divided into three groups each containing 10, 20 and 20 rats to represent the control (C). infected with zinc supplemented diet (ID) and infected without zinc supplemented diet (IK) groups, respectively, in order to determine the serum zinc levels and the effect of zinc supplement on the cellular immunity in experimentally induced T.gondii infection. Serum zinc levels and some immunologic parameters of rats were determined. Total and T8 lymphocytes were high in ID and IK groups while T4 lymphocyte was high in K group (P < 0.001). No difference was observed between the serum zinc levels of all groups. In the correlation coefficient calculations a positive relation was found between T4 and T8 lymphocytes in both K and IK groups, though there was not any relation in the other parameters and, also a positive relation was observed between the T8 lymphocytes and serum zinc levels in the supplemented infected group. It was observed in this study that zinc supplementation stimulates the immune system by increasing the T8 lymphocyte production and it may be concluded that zinc supplementation might be useful besides the therapeutic treatments for parasitic infections. ¡Journal of Turgut Özal Medical Center 2(2): 130-134,1995]

Key Words : Toxoplasma gondii, zinc, cellular immunity.