Zinc is an essential trace element for living organisms and their biological processes.\nZinc plays a key role in more than 300 enzymes and it is involved in cell communication, proliferation,\ndifferentiation and survival. Zinc plays also a role in regulating the immune system with implications\nin pathologies where zinc deficiency and inflammation are observed. In order to examine the\nexperimental evidence reported in the literature regarding zinc levels in the body of patients with\nautoimmune disorders compared to control individuals, a systematic review and meta-analysis were\nperformed. From 26,095 articles identified by literature search, only 179 of them were considered\npotentially relevant for our study and then examined. Of the 179 articles, only 62 satisfied the\ninclusion criteria. Particularly for Fixed Model, Zn concentration in both serum (mean effect = âË?â??1.19;\nconfidence interval: âË?â??1.26 to âË?â??1.11) and plasma (mean effect = âË?â??3.97; confidence interval: âË?â??4.08 to\nâË?â??3.87) samples of autoimmune disease patients was significantly lower than in controls. The data\npresented in our work, although very heterogeneous in the manner of collecting and investigating\nsamples, have proved to be extremely consistent in witnessing a deficiency of zinc in serum and\nplasma of patients compared to controls.
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