Mehrangiz Ghaffari
Assistant Professor of Pathology, Department of Pathology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Mostafa Arabyaghoubi
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Abstract
Introduction:
Second to iron, zinc, which is widely distributed in the human body, is the most abundant element in human body. The human body has about 2 to 3 grams of zinc, with the highest concentrations in the liver, pancreas, kidneys, bones and muscles. Other tissues with a higher concentration of zinc include parts of the eye, prostate gland, spermatozoa, skin, hair, fingernail and toenails.
Methods:
Searches were conducted by two independent researchers in international (PubMed, Web of science, Scopus and Google scholar) and national (SID, Magiran) databases for related studies from the inception of the databases to September 2017 (without time limitation) in English and Persian languages. To ensure literature saturation, the reference lists of included studies or relevant reviews identifed through the search were scanned.
Discussion: Absorption and excretion of zinc are carried out through hemostatic mechanisms that are not quite well known yet. The absorption mechanism consists of two paths. Albumin is the most important zinc plasma carrier. The amount transported in blood, in addition to zinc, depends on the availability of albumin. Zinc is a single intracellular ion with structural, catalytic and regulatory roles. Zinc plays important structural roles as part of a multi-protein structure.
Key words: Zinc , essential nutritional ,component , human body