The ability of human growth hormone (hGH) to alleviate the effects of zinc deficiency on growth was investigated in the rat. Human GH treatment had no significant effect on food consumption, growth parameters or plasma IGF-I. Food consumption, tail length, liver weight, and tibia weight were significantly lower in the zinc deficient group. Body weight was significantly reduced in the zinc deficient and pair fed groups compared to the control. A significant interaction between zinc and hGH was found for tibial epiphyseal cartilage width but there were no significant differences between the groups receiving hGH and the respective shams. Tissue zinc content and plasma alkaline phosphatase were significantly decreased by the dietary zinc deficiency. Plasma zinc was higher in the groups receiving hGH. Significant interactions between zinc and hGH was found for liver iron, tibial zinc, and tibial copper. Copper and iron showed a competitive interaction with zinc and were lower in the rats receiving the control diet. Both lowered zinc and food intake contributed to the effects of the zinc deficiency; however, these effects were not equally distributed. Food intake had the greater effect on growth and plasma IGF-I while tissue mineral content showed a greater effect for zinc intake.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.56653 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Dicks, Dana L. (Dana Lorraine) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001304637, proquestno: AAIMM80427, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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