zinc helps seal a leaky gut?

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more giunea pigs sacrifeced to the god of greater human good.

" Intestinal paracellular permeability during malnutrition in guinea

pigs: effect of high dietary zinc.

P, Darmon N, Chappuis P, Candalh C, Blaton MA, Bouchaud

C, Heyman M.

Laboratoire de Cytologie, Universite Paris VI, France.

BACKGROUND: Zinc has been shown to have beneficial effects in vitro

on epithelial barrier function, and in vivo to reduce intestinal

permeability in malnourished children with diarrhoea. AIMS: To

determine

whether malnutrition alters intestinal paracellular permeability, and

whether zinc prevents such alterations. METHODS: Guinea pigs were fed

a

normal protein diet (NP group), a low protein diet (LP group), or a

low

protein diet enriched with 1800 ppm zinc (LPZn group) for three weeks.

Intestinal permeability was measured on jejunal segments mounted in

Ussing chambers by measuring ionic conductance and mucosal to serosal

fluxes of 14C-mannitol, 22Na, and horseradish peroxidase. Tight

junction

morphology was assessed on cryofracture replicas. RESULTS: Mannitol

and

Na fluxes and ionic conductance increased in the LP group compared

with

the NP group but remained normal in the LPZn group. Accordingly,

jejunal

epithelia from the LP group, but not from the LPZn group, showed a

small

decrease in number of tight junctional strands compared with epithelia

from the NP group. Neither malnutrition nor zinc treatment modified

horseradish peroxidase fluxes. CONCLUSIONS: Malnutrition is associated

with increased intestinal paracellular permeability to small

molecules,

and pharmacological doses of zinc prevent such functional abnormality.

PMID: 8949647 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

thoughtfully dug up by linda carlton

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