Acute zinc depletion affects homeostasis by reducing the rate of release from skeletal muscle

King et al. studied zinc homeostasis in 5 male subjects for 57 days. First they were fed a baseline diet for 16 days and then a severely zinc-restricted diet (0.23 mg Zn/d) for 33 days. Plasma zinc mass decreased by 65% over the depletion period. Stable isotopes were administered at baseline and after 5 weeks of zinc depletion. The authors used a compartmental model of zinc metabolism to explain the marked decrease in plasma zinc mass that could not be accounted for by zinc excretion. They concluded that zinc depletion was due to a 60% reduction in the rate of zinc release into the plasma from the most slowly turning over zinc pool, which is found mainly in skeletal muscle.

King, Janet C., et al. Effect of acute zinc depletion on zinc homeostasis and plasma zinc kinetics in men. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74:116-24.

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