Preliminary report on the use of zinc in vivo to protect against nitrogen mustard toxicity in female Balb/cJ mice

Previous studies with cultured normal human fibroblasts indicated that treatment of cells with zinc before exposure to an alkylating agent enhanced cell survival by seven- to ninefold. To establish whether a similar zinc-induced protective response could be elicited in vivo, we conducted a preliminary experiment in which Balb/cJ female mice were treated with zinc (2 mg kg−1 body weight) or saline by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection at 48, 36, 24 and 12 h before i.p. administration of the alkylating agent nitrogen mustard (4 mg kg−1 body weight). Of the animals that received saline before nitrogen mustard, 57% died as compared with only 20% in the group treated with zinc before administration of the alkylating agent. As was observed in the studies of cells in culture, the results described in this report may suggest the existence in Balb/cJ female mice of a zinc-mediated protective response against nitrogen mustard toxicity.