title: Restoring effect of oral supplementation of zinc and arginine on thymic endocrine activity and peripheral immune functions in aged mice.
abstract: Previous work from this laboratory has demonstrated that both a trace element, zinc, and an amino acid, arginine, are capable, when orally administered, to recover some age-related immune dysfunctions. In the present paper the effectiveness of a zinc-arginine combination versus the single nutrients in restoring age-related immunological alterations in old Balb/c mice has been investigated. The zinc-arginine combination is more effective than the treatments of single nutrients alone. In particular on the reactivation of thymic endocrine activity, as measured by the circulating level of one of the best known thymic factors, i.e. thymulin (Zn-FTS) and the natural killer (NK) cell activity, particularly under boosting condition by interleukin-2 (IL-2) or interferon (IFN). On the other parameters tested the zinc-arginine combination either was not more effective than the single nutrients or a prevalence of one of them was detectable, such as of arginine on mitogen response or of zinc on basal NK activity. The findings clearly suggest that nutritional interventions and particularly combination of nutrients may represent an interesting and side-effect deprived approach for immunorestoration in elderly people.
authors.affiliation: Immunological Center, Gerontological Research Department, Institute of National Researich Centers on Aging, Via Birarelli, 8, I-60121 Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mocchegiani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muzzioli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santarelli
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fabris