Zinc supports liver regeneration after partial resection
Yuki Takahashi
, Hideyuki Oyama, Akihiro Nakamura, Yuzo Minegishi, Kuniya Tanaka
Department of General and Gastroenterological Surgery, Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Yokohama, Japan
Abstract
Objective: Safe removal of extensive liver tumor burdens depends on regeneration of the remnant liver, which requires a large amount of zinc over a short period of time. We studied how zinc influences regeneration.
Material and Methods: We measured perioperative serum zinc concentrations after liver cancer diagnosis in 77 patients undergoing hepatectomy to determine how serum zinc affected short-term outcomes and remnant liver regeneration.
Results: Serum zinc concentration at diagnosis showed no correlation with inflammatory or nutritional parameters except for a weak correlation with the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio. When patients were divided into a high pre-hepatectomy zinc group (≥75 µg/dL, n= 39, H group) and a low zinc group (<75 µg/dL, n= 38, L group), short-term results such as mortality (p> 0.999), morbidity (p= 0.490), and hospital stay (p= 0.591) did not differ between groups. However, hypertrophy in the future liver remnant after hepatectomy in the H group (127.7 ± 24.7% of original volume) was greater than in the L group (115.9 ± 16.7%, p= 0.024). In a subgroup of patients with extended hepatectomy, hypertrophy was 130.9 ± 26.8% in the H group vs. 116.4 ± 16.5% in the L group (p= 0.037).
Conclusion: Greater serum zinc at diagnosis was associated with greater hypertrophy in the future liver remnant.
Keywords: Zinc, hepatectomy, liver regeneration, nutritional parameters, short-term outcome
Cite this article as: Takahashi Y, Oyama H, Nakamura A, Minegishi Y, Tanaka K. Zinc supports liver regeneration after partial resection. Turk J Surg 2023; 39 (4): 344-353.
This study was approved by Showa University Ethics Committee (Approval no: 2023-002-A, Date: 13.04.2023).
Externally peer-reviewed.
Concept - KT; Design - KT; Supervision - KT; Data Collection and/or Processing - YT, HO, AN, YM; Analysis and/or Interpretation - YT, HO, YM; Literature Review - KT; Writer - YT, KT; Critical Review - KT.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.