Proteomic analysis of serum from early pubertal females supplemented with zinc

The purpose of this research was to determine whether oral zinc supplementation for four weeks caused significant changes in serum protein composition as measured by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE). Serum collected from an ongoing, randomized placebo‐controlled trial was used. A cohort of 12 subjects was selected, 6 Zn supplemented (24 mg/d) and 6 placebo controls. The sera were pre‐fractionated using Seppro® IgY immuunoaffinity columns to deplete 14 high abundant proteins, then the remaining serum proteins were separated by 2DE. Within‐group differences in baseline vs. 4wk spot volumes were analyzed by two‐tailed paired t‐test; differences were considered significant when P ≤0.05. Several serum proteins appeared to be affected by Zn consumption, including hemopexin, inter‐αglobulin inhibitor H2, vitamin D binding protein precursor, α2‐HS glycoprotein, retinol binding protein with transthyretin, IgMκ3, α1‐antitrypsin/keratin 1, and proapolipoprotein/serum amyloid P. Following validation, these candidate proteins may serve as biomarkers for Zn status in the future.