2005, Volume 11 No. 1

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Serum Micronutrient (a-tocopherol, retinol, copper, zinc) Status of Immunosuppressed Rats

Sheikh Nazrul Islam¹, Parveen Begum¹ and Monira Ahsan^2
1Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, ²Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT
Micronutrients are immuno-active and some of the nutraceuticals have been reported to modify immune responses. An attempt was made to investigate the immuno-suppression effects by a nutraceutical- volatile oil of Nigella sativa (NSVO). To induce immuno-suppression, animals were challenged with a specific antigen, and then treated with NSVO intramuscularly for 30 days. Serum micronutrients (alpha-tocopherol, retinol, copper and zinc) of immune-suppressed rats were determined. The HPLC was employed to determine the serum concentrations of vitamin E and A, and atomic absorption flame spectrophotometry was used to estimate the concentrations of serum zinc and copper. The SPSS software package (version 10.0) was used to analyse the data. It was found that immuno-suppressed rats showed significant deceases in serum concentrations of retinol (P=0.005) and zinc (P=0.003), when compared with control rats. Serum concentrations of alpha-tocopherol and copper also increased but not significantly. This study revealed that immune suppression might bring about changes in the concentrations of certain serum micronutrients.

Full Article >>