The effects of zinc compounds on inflammatory and gastric cells.

Exogenous zinc has been shown to alter the cellular response to inflammatory conditions. Both common zinc salt and novel zinc compounds have been shown to be therapeutic in various disease states. However, little is known about their action on immune cells in these conditions. This thesis aims to investigate the effectiveness of zinc monoglycerolate (ZMG), a novel zinc compound, in providing bioavailable zinc. This study also aims to examine the effect of zinc on the inflammatory responses of immune and gastric cells.Using cell culture techniques, fluorescence microscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS), comparison was made of zinc bioavailability from ZMG, zinc oxide and zinc sulphate. The cellular protein interactions of the zinc provided by these compounds was investigated by autoradiography, Western blot analysis and cytokine assay. As a result of the biological study, chemical analyses were carried out on ZMG using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and matrix assisted laser desorption ionisation time of flight (MALDI-ToF).The result of the cell culture study indicated that ZMG and zinc oxide provided significantly more bioavailable zinc than zinc sulphate. Furthermore, these results showed that the different cell lines examined treated the zinc in distinctly different manners. The studies on direct zinc-protein interactions did not conclusively determine whether such interactions occurred between cytoplasmic proteins and exogenous zinc. However, zinc was shown to modulate cytokine secretions in vitro in cultured cell lines. The chemical analyses provided novel observations about the polymeric structure of ZMG and its solubility profile.In conclusion the results showed that ZMG is a highly effective source of bioavailable zinc and that exogenous zinc can modulate the immune response of cultured cell lines to external stimuli.