Study of the interactions between Cadmium (Cd) and Zinc (Zn)

In the present work, we wanted to investigate possible interactions between Cd and Zn during the lactation period in neonatal Wistar rats. For this purpose, we studied the effects of Cd exposure alone or supplemented with Zn on some parameters at the organism level (evolution of body weight, hepato-somatic ratio and milk consumption) and tissue level (hepatic oxidative status, intestinal absorption of Zn, lactational transfer of Cd and Zn, accumulation of both metals in plasma and some organs of the newborn rats). The results show that interactions between Cd and Zn occurred at different stages of the metabolism of the two metals during the lactation period (lactational transfer, intestinal absorption and distribution in the organism of the neonatal rats) and that the supplementation of Zn provided a partial protection against Cd-induced oxidative damage in the liver of the neonatal rats.