Alaskan Malamute chondrodysplasia. V. Decreased gut zinc absorption.

Experiements were conducted to determine if zinc absorption was impaired in Alaskan Malamutes which had a genetic chondrodysplasia or dwarfism. When the uptake of an oral dose of 65Zn from the gut in blood was measured in whole dogs it was found that the chondrodysplastic animals absorbed only 25 per cent the amount absorbed by their controls. In vitro studies suggested that 65Zn was initially bound to a protein fraction in all cases but it was later released to a non-protein fraction in the case of normal dogs. This transfer did not occur in the case of the chondrodysplastic dog and it suggests that the transfer of zinc from a protein to a non-protein fraction in the mucosal cell may be the missing step in the dog with chondrodysplasia.