Molecules and Cells

Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (한국분자세포생물학회)
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Regulatory Role of Zinc in Immune Cell Signaling

  • Kim, Bonah (Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Inflammation (LAI), Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Lee, Won-Woo (Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Inflammation (LAI), Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Seoul National University College of Medicine)
  • Received : 2021.03.13
  • Accepted : 2021.04.07
  • Published : 2021.05.31
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Abstract

Zinc is an essential micronutrient with crucial roles in multiple facets of biological processes. Dysregulated zinc homeostasis impairs overall immune function and resultantly increases susceptibility to infection. Clinically, zinc supplementation is practiced for treatment of several infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and malaria. Recent focus on zinc as a beneficial element for immune system support has resulted in investigation of the immunomodulatory roles of zinc in a variety of immune cells. Besides its classical role as a cofactor that regulates the structural function of thousands of proteins, accumulating evidence suggests that zinc also acts, in a manner similar to calcium, as an ionic regulator of immune responses via participation as an intracellular messenger in signaling pathways. In this review, we focus on the role of zinc as a signaling molecule in major pathways such as those downstream of Toll-like receptors-, T cell receptor-, and cytokine-mediated signal transduction that regulate the activity and function of monocytes/macrophages and T cells, principal players in the innate and adaptive immune systems.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors sincerely apologize many colleagues whose work they were unable to cite owing to space limitations. This work was supported by grants (grant No. 2018R1A2B2006310 to W.W.L.) from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Republic of Korea.

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