| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
YANAGISAWA Hiroyuki Saitama Medical School, Medicine, Assistant professor, 医学部, 助教授 (10200536)
WADA Oasmu Saitama Medical School, Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (60009933)
|
|---|
| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 1998: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Zinc (Zn) deficiency rats were prepared to investigate histopathological changes in thymus, testis, skin, esophagus, kidney and liver and relationship between these changes and apoptosis. Male SD rats were given a Zn deficient diet (0% Zn diet) or a atandared diet (0.02% Zn diet). Significant morphological changes were seen only in the rats on the 0% Zn diet. After 4 weeks, atrophy of the thymus was seen. after 5 weeks, origospemia was observed, and after 10 weeks, testicular atrophy accompanied by the loss of sperm cells and spermatocytes was confirmed. In addition, after 10 weeks, thickening of epithelia was seen in the skin and esophagus of rats on the 0% diet. During the observation period, no marked morphological changes were observed in the liver and kidney. In the thymus and testis of rats on the 0% Zn diet, prior to detecting morphological changes, increasing in apoptosis (TUNEL method) were confirmed at 1 and 3 weeks after initiating diet administration, respectively. In the kidney and liver, TUNEL positive cells appeared after 13 and 34 weeks. These observation suggest that the functional and morphological changes the thymus and testis of rats on the 0% Zn diet are caused by increased. And fact that even in the liver and kidney, apoptosis was observed when administration of the 0% Zn diet was prolonged suggests that the appearance of apoptosis is dependent on the amount of Zn in the tissues.
|
