Studying the effect of zinc and copper on cellular immunity in tuberculosis patients

الملخص EN

This study aims at studying the effect of zinc and copper level on the cell mediated immunity against tuberculosis.This work was applied on 60 TB patients admitted to the Babylon Center of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases from October 2009 to January 2010.

TB patients consisted of 38 males and 22 females with age range 9-60 years .This study involved also 40 apparently health subjects as controls, which consisted of 25 males and 15 females with age range 10-60 years.

Blood samples were collected from patients and control to estimate phagocytic index, and interferon gamma (IFN-γ).

Zinc and copper level were also spectrophotometerically estimated.

The cell mediated parameters showing a significantly decreased (p< 0.05) in phagocytosis activity in TB patients (7.3 %) compared to control group (11.6 %) and no significantly increased (p > 0.05) of IFN-γ level in the TB patients (0.123) IU / ml compared to control group (0.071) IU / ml .The zinc level in serum was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in the TB patients (58.27) µg / dl compared with control (79.92) µg / dl and copper level was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the TB patients (148.36) µg / dl compared with control (89.16) µg / dl .The results provide a good correlation between the levels of zinc and copper ; and the cellular immunity against tuberculosis.