الفهرس 
material and methodsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Fourty weanling albino rats of both sexes were utilized in this study. Zinc deficiency was induced
by feeding the rats a diet containing all the
essential nutrients except zinc, for one, two, four,
six and eight weeks. Deionized water was given and
the animals were kept in stainless-steel cages.
The brain was dissected out of the skull and part
of it was fixed in buffered formol-saline, embedded in
paraffin wax and sectioned serially at 15 micrometers
for the histological purposes. They were stained with
Hx and E to study the general structure, toluidine
blue to show Nissl bodies, methyl green-pyron in for
RNA and DNA, Kultschitsky’s method for myelin and
Bielschowsky’s method for neurofibrils.
For the histochemical investigations, other
specimens were frozen and sectioned at 15 microns.
They were treated with different reactions to detect
the activity of the .enzymes; .alkaline phosphatase,
lactate dehydrogenase, NADH diaphorase, acetyl
cholinestrase, nonspecific esterases, ATPase, succinic
dehydrogenase and acid phosphatase.
For the quantitative study, the eye piece
micrometer was used to measure the diameters and the
graphical method of Dornfeld et al. was used to
calculate the total number of cells in the caudateputamen.
Volumetric measurements were done to
calculate the size of the cells and their nuclei.
Then the nucleo/cytoplasmic ratio was deduced.
Anorexia, growth retardation and skin change were
observed in zinc deficient animals.
The total cell number of the caudate-putamen
decreased while the vascularity increased. The sizes
of the cells and their nuclei were reduced, however,
the nuclei were affected more. Chromatolysis occured
and DNA content of the nucleus decreased. The
thickness and stainability of myelin and neurofibrils
decreased
The activity of alkaline phosphatase, lactate
dehydrogenase, NADH diaphorase, acetylcholinesterase
and nonspecific esterases decreased markedly in the
nerve cells. However, the activity of succinic
dehydrogenase remained unchanged. In contrast, the
activity of ATPase and acid phophatase increased.