Effect of zinc on hepatoprotectivity of α1-acid glycoprotein

Abstract

αl-Acid glycoprotein (AGP) prevented primary hepatocytes from undergoing cell death induced by the chemical toxin, bromobenzene at range from 0.1 to 0.2 mg/ml. Addition of zinc (0.2 mM) to medium containing AGP (0.02 mg/ml) was found to prevent the cell death by bromobenzene. Zinc is shown to enhance the hepatoprotective effect of AGP. Circular dichroism and thermal analysis were done to investigate the mechanism of the effect of zinc mentioned above. The results suggest that zinc stabilizes the conformation of AGP.