Study of uptake of zinc into blood from a Nigerian diet using INAA

This work describes our on-going investigations on the study of uptake of zinc from dietary intakes, into blood. The aim is to evaluate the possibility of successful application of dietary zinc therapy in the management of Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA). Seven adult subjects were involved in the current study. After the ingestion of an experimental diet, blood samples were withdrawn from the subjects at various time intervals. The blood samples were further separated into erythrocytes and plasma. Both blood components and the ingested diet were analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) for zinc. Significant increases in the levels of plasma zinc were recorded in the subjects within 2 hours after the ingestion of the diet and were sustained till about the fourth hour. We were not able to detect significant uptake of zinc in the erythrocytes. Either the levels of ingested zinc were too low or there were inhibitions of the absorption by the diet. Better response is expected in SCA patients since they are known to be frequently zinc-deficient.