The effect of dietary zinc and zinc physiological status on the composition of the gut microbiome in vivo

Abstract

Zinc serves critical catalytic, regulatory, and structural roles. Hosts and their resident gut microbiota both require zinc, leading to competition, where a balance must be maintained. This systematic review examined evidence on dietary zinc and physiological status (zinc deficiency or high zinc/zinc overload) effects on gut microbiota. This review was conducted according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021250566). PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched for in vivo (animal) studies, resulting in eight selected studies. Study quality limitations were evaluated using the SYRCLE risk of bias tool and according to ARRIVE guidelines. The results demonstrated that zinc deficiency led to inconsistent changes in α-diversity and short-chain fatty acid production but led to alterations in bacterial taxa with functions in carbohydrate metabolism, glycan metabolism, and intestinal mucin degradation. High dietary zinc/zinc overload generally resulted in either unchanged or decreased α-diversity, decreased short-chain fatty acid production, and increased bacterial metal resistance and antibiotic resistance genes. Additional studies in human and animal models are needed to further understand zinc physiological status effects on the intestinal microbiome and clarify the applicability of utilizing the gut microbiome as a potential zinc status biomarker.

Keywords:

• zinc physiological status
• microbiome
• zinc deficiency
• zinc toxicity
• zinc biomarker
• dietary zinc

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data analyzed in this study are openly available within the following references and/or the reference’s supplementary materials: (Reed et al. 2015; Zackular et al. 2016; Gaulke et al. 2018; Foligne et al. 2020; Kable et al. 2020; Pieper et al. 2020; Chen et al. 2021; Oh et al. 2021; Han et al. 2022).

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.