Zinc kinetics in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients.

Zinc has an important role in the control of carbohydrate metabolism, and diabetic patients are at risk for zinc deficiency. However, there are conflicting data concerning nutritional zinc status. In order to investigate this topic, 10 normal and 10 insulin-dependent diabetic patients were studied following venous zinc tolerance test. Our results found no evidence of zinc deficiency or of changes on the kinetic parameters of zinc in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus following a venous zinc tolerance test.