The DOI matches its Crossref record; 250 of the 250 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Zinc and immune function: the biological basis of altered resistance to infection
Open accessAbstract
Zinc is known to play a central role in the immune system, and zinc-deficient persons experience increased susceptibility to a variety of pathogens. The immunologic mechanisms whereby zinc modulates increased susceptibility to infection have been studied for several decades. It is clear that zinc affects multiple aspects of the immune system, from the barrier of the skin to gene regulation within lymphocytes. Zinc is crucial for normal development and function of cells mediating nonspecific immunity such as neutrophils and natural killer cells. Zinc deficiency also affects development of acquired immunity by preventing both the outgrowth and certain functions of T lymphocytes such as activation, Th1 cytokine production, and B lymphocyte help. Likewise, B lymphocyte development and antibody production, particularly immunoglobulin G, is compromised. The macrophage, a pivotal cell in many immunologic functions, is adversely affected by zinc deficiency, which can dysregulate intracellular killing, cytokine production, and phagocytosis. The effects of zinc on these key immunologic mediators is rooted in the myriad roles for zinc in basic cellular functions such as DNA replication, RNA transcription, cell division, and cell activation. Apoptosis is potentiated by zinc deficiency. Zinc also functions as an antioxidant and can stabilize membranes. This review explores these aspects of zinc biology of the immune system and attempts to provide a biological basis for the altered host resistance to infections observed during zinc deficiency and supplementation.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Both human and animal studies have shown a correlation between zinc deficiency and enhanced susceptibility to infection.”
From Metal ion acquisition in Staphylococcus aureus: overcoming nutritional immunity (2012) · cites this paper as [190]
In the citing paper
“Many animal studies show that zinc deficiency decreases resistance to a range of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens (29), probably because of the immune impairment induced by zinc deficiency.”
From Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress (2007) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Many animal studies show that zinc deficiency decreases resistance to a range of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens (29), probably because of the immune impairment induced by zinc deficiency.”
From Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress (2007) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Zinc supplementation decreased not only the production of inflammatory cytokines but also that of oxidative stress markers, as we previously reported (19,29).”
From Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress (2007) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Numerous studies have shown the benefits of zinc supplementation with respect to infectious diseases in human populations (29).”
From Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress (2007) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Zinc supplementation decreased not only the production of inflammatory cytokines but also that of oxidative stress markers, as we previously reported (19,29).”
From Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress (2007) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Zinc deficiency affects T helper subset 1 cell function adversely in humans (36–38, 43).”
From Discovery of Human Zinc Deficiency: Its Impact on Human Health and Disease (2013) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“The intracellular zinc concentration, such as the lymphocyte zinc concentration, is a better indicator of zinc status as we previously reported (4,6).”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Glucocorticoid-induced thymocyte apoptosis is associated with endogenous endonuclease activation
Wyllie, A. H. (1980) · Nature · doi:10.1038/284555a0 · Cited by 4,495
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease.
(1988) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-108-3-508_7 · Cited by 3,381
The biochemical basis of zinc physiology
Vallée, B. L., & Falchuk, K. H. (1993) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1993.73.1.79 · Cited by 3,005
Cousins, R. J. (1985) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1985.65.2.238 · Cited by 1,331
Apoptosis And Programmed Cell Death In Immunity
Cohen, J., Duke, R. C., Fadok, V. A., & Sellins, K. S. (1992) · Annual Review of Immunology · doi:10.1146/annurev.iy.10.040192.001411 · Cited by 1,112
Romagnani, S. (1997) · Immunology Today · doi:10.1016/s0167-5699(97)80019-9 · Cited by 1,072
ZINC PROTEINS: Enzymes, Storage Proteins, Transcription Factors, and Replication Proteins
Coleman, J. E. (1992) · Annual Review of Biochemistry · doi:10.1146/annurev.bi.61.070192.004341 · Cited by 980
Fosmire, G. (1990) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/51.2.225 · Cited by 907
The physiological role of zinc as an antioxidant
Bray, T. Μ., & Bettger, W. J. (1990) · Free Radical Biology and Medicine · doi:10.1016/0891-5849(90)90076-u · Cited by 896
Palmiter, R. D., & Findley, S. D. (1995) · The EMBO Journal · doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1995.tb07042.x · Cited by 758
Research works printed but not linked: 16
- Zalewski, 1996, Zinc and immunity: implications for growth, survival and function of lymphoid cells, J Nutr Immunol, 4, 39
- Pekarek, 1977, Humoral and cellular immune response in zinc-deficient rats, Nutr Rep Int, 16, 267
- Shankar, 1995, Zinc-deficiency exacerbates experimental malaria infection in mice, FASEB J, 9, A4269
- Shankar, 1997, Zinc supplementation can reduce malaria-related morbidity in preschool children, Am J Trop Med Hyg, 57, A434
- Fraker, 1981, Immune repair capacity of zinc deficient young adult and neonatal mice, Fed Proc, 40, 918
- Arif, 1987, Effect of zinc diet on Xanthine oxidase activity of liver of mice infected with Plasmodium berghei, Indian J Malariol, 24, 59
- Tapazoglou, 1985, Decreased natural killer cell activity in zinc deficient subjects with sickle cell disease, J Lab Clin Med, 105, 19
- Cunningham-Rundles, 1979, Increased T-lymphocyte function and thymopoietin following zinc repletion in man, Fed Proc, 38, 1222
- Kaplan, 1988, Impaired interleukin 2 production in the elderly: association with mild zinc deficiency, J Trace Elem Exp Med, 1, 3
- Brummerstedt, 1971, The effect of zinc on calves with hereditary thymic hypoplasia (lethal trait A 46), Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand, 79, 686
- Haas, 1976, The effect of zinc deficiency on the immune response of A/J mice, Fed Proc, 35, 659
- Wirth, 1989, Zinc requirements for macrophage function: effect of zinc deficiency on uptake and killing of a protozoan parasite, Immunology, 68, 114
- Prasad, 1997, Zinc deficiency: changes in cytokine production and T-cell subpopulations in patients with head and neck cancer in non-cancer subjects, Proc Assoc Am Physicians, 109, 68
- Blazsek, 1984, Zinc and immunity, Biomed Pharmacother, 38, 187
- Good, 1982, Effect of undernutrition on host cell and organ function, Cancer Res, 42, 737
- Chvapil, 1972, Pathophysiology of zinc. In: International review of neurobiology, 105
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Maternal and child undernutrition: global and regional exposures and health consequences
Black, R. E., Allen, L. H., Bhutta, Z. A., Caulfield, L. E., de Onis, M., Ezzati, M., Mathers, C., & Rivera, J. (2008) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61690-0 · Cited by 6,443
Discovery of Human Zinc Deficiency: Its Impact on Human Health and Disease
Prasad, A. S. (2013) · Advances in Nutrition · doi:10.3945/an.112.003210 · Cited by 919
Self-citationGuarino, A., Ashkenazi, S., Gendrel, D., Lo Vecchio, A., Shamir, R., & Szajewska, H. (2014) · Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition · doi:10.1097/mpg.0000000000000375 · Cited by 935
Zinc and its role in immunity and inflammation
Bonaventura, P., Benedetti, G., Albarède, F., & Miossec, P. (2015) · Autoimmunity Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.autrev.2014.11.008 · Cited by 798
Bhutta, Z. A., Black, R. E., Brown, K. H., Gardner, J. M., Gore, S., Hidayat, A., Khatun, F., Martorell, R., Ninh, N. X., Penny, M. E., et al. (1999) · The Journal of Pediatrics · doi:10.1016/s0022-3476(99)70086-7 · Cited by 731
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Shankar, A. H., & Prasad, A. S.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Venue
- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-08
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 447S-463S
- ISSN
- 0002-9165 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1943607432
- Cited by
- 1,606
- References
- 250
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 98 · 2019: 65 · 2018: 52 · 2017: 77 · 2016: 84 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 91 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 68
- FWCI
- 8.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Johns Hopkins University (HRN-A-00-97-00015-00)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Trace Elements in Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Hematology › Iron Metabolism and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Micronutrient Interactions and Effects
- Keywords
- zinc, zinc deficiency, immune function, infection susceptibility, non-specific immunity, natural killer cells, neutrophils, T cell activation, Th1 cytokines, B cells, antibody production, IgG, macrophages, phagocytosis, apoptosis, antioxidant function, zinc supplementation
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Glucocorticoids, Humans, Immunity, Infections, Thymic Factor, Circulating, Zinc, Cytokines, Apoptosis
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
