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The influence of inflammation on plasma zinc concentration in apparently healthy, HIV+ Kenyan adults and zinc responses after a multi-micronutrient supplement

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 64, pages 510–517 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Plasma zinc is an important biomarker of zinc status, but the concentration is depressed by inflammation.

Subjects/Methods:

Apparently healthy adults, who tested positive twice for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but who had not reached stage IV or clinical AIDS, were randomly allocated to receive a food supplement (n=17 and 21) or the food plus a micronutrient capsule (MN; n=10 men and n=33 women) containing 15 mg zinc/day. We used the inflammation biomarkers, C-reactive protein (CRP) and α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), to identify subjects with and without inflammation and determine the effect of inflammation on the response of plasma zinc concentrations to the MN and food supplements.

Results:

There were no differences between men and women either in plasma zinc or in the responses to the supplements and their data were combined. Plasma zinc was lower in those with inflammation than without. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that inflammation blocked increases in plasma zinc, and there was an approximate 10% increase in plasma zinc concentration in response to the MN supplement (P=0.023) in those without inflammation. Subgroup analysis showed mean changes in plasma zinc of 0.95 and −0.83 μmol/l (P=0.031) in response to the MN and food treatments, respectively, in those without inflammation at both time points.

Conclusions:

Inflammation seems to block any increase in plasma zinc after MN supplement and it is important to identify those without inflammation to determine the effectiveness of a zinc supplementation program.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Government Chemist, Nairobi for zinc analyses and Pharma Natura, South Africa for the placebo and MN capsules. We also thank Arjan de Wagt for his enthusiastic assistance in setting up the study and many fruitful discussions of the results. We thank UNICEF and the Dutch Government for providing funds to do the work in Kenya under project number SSA/KENB/2002/00002302-03. The study sponsors had no part in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data and in the writing of this paper or in our decision to submit for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kenya Medical Research Institute, Centre for Public Health Research, Nairobi, Kenya

    A S W Mburu, D L Mwaniki, E M Muniu & F M Alumasa

  2. Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health, University of Ulster, Coleraine, UK

    D I Thurnham

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  1. A S W Mburu
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Correspondence to D I Thurnham.

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Mburu, A., Thurnham, D., Mwaniki, D. et al. The influence of inflammation on plasma zinc concentration in apparently healthy, HIV+ Kenyan adults and zinc responses after a multi-micronutrient supplement. Eur J Clin Nutr 64, 510–517 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.33

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