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Updated: Oct 29, 2025

Atomic Absorbance Spectroscopy to Measure Intracellular Zinc Pools in Mammalian Cells
Published on: May 16, 2019
Dietary and Physiological Effects of Zinc on the Immune System
Inga Wessels1, Henrike Josephine Fischer1, Lothar Rink1
1Institute of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany;
Abstract:
Evidence for the importance of zinc for all immune cells and for mounting an efficient and balanced immune response to various environmental stressors has been accumulating in recent years. This article describes the role of zinc in fundamental biological processes and summarizes our current knowledge of zinc's effect on hematopoiesis, including differentiation into immune cell subtypes. In addition, the important role of zinc during activation and function of immune cells is detailed and associated with the specific immune responses to bacteria, parasites, and viruses. The association of zinc with autoimmune reactions and cancers as diseases with increased or decreased immune responses is also discussed. This article provides a broad overview of the manifold roles that zinc, or its deficiency, plays in physiology and during various diseases. Consequently, we discuss why zinc supplementation should be considered, especially for people at risk of deficiency.
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