Golden M H, Harland P S, Golden B E, Jackson A A
Lancet. 1978 Jun 10;1(8076):1226-8. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(78)92463-7.
Malnourished children have thymic atrophy which is reversed by zinc supplementation. To see if their defect in cell-mediated immunity was also associated with zinc deficiency ten children were skin-tested with Candida antigen on both arms. One test site was covered with local zinc sulphate and the other with placebo ointment. There was a highly significant increase in the typical delayed-hypersensitivity reaction at the site covered with zinc. The magnitude of the difference between the supplemented and unsupplemented arms correlated negatively with the plasma-zinc concentration. These data show that zinc deficiency is a cause of the immunoincompetence seen in malnutrition. The normal reactions of the zinc-supplemented side indicate that, of the many nutritional deficits of malnourished children, zinc deficiency specifically impairs the cell-mediated immune system. Local skin-testing with and without zinc may provide a measure of zinc status. Local application of zinc may enhance the reliability of tests to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis in malnourished patients.
营养不良的儿童会出现胸腺萎缩，补充锌后可使其逆转。为了探究他们细胞介导免疫功能的缺陷是否也与锌缺乏有关，对10名儿童的双臂进行了白色念珠菌抗原皮肤试验。一个试验部位涂抹局部硫酸锌，另一个涂抹安慰剂软膏。涂抹锌的部位典型的迟发型超敏反应有极显著增加。补充锌和未补充锌的手臂之间的差异程度与血浆锌浓度呈负相关。这些数据表明，锌缺乏是营养不良中免疫功能不全的一个原因。补充锌一侧的正常反应表明，在营养不良儿童的多种营养缺乏中，锌缺乏特别损害细胞介导的免疫系统。有锌和无锌情况下的局部皮肤试验可能提供一种评估锌状态的方法。局部应用锌可能会提高对营养不良患者结核病等疾病诊断测试的可靠性。
