Figure 1.

Zinc concentrations in blood (a) and liver tissue (b) in the sham-operated and BDL groups with or without zinc supplementation and changes in mortality rates of mice within these groups (c). Mice were subjected to BDL for 4 weeks and then divided into four groups as shown. Zinc supplementation started at the end of 4 weeks after BDL and lasted for 2 weeks. Animals were harvested at the end of 2 weeks of zinc supplementation. Data were obtained from six mice in each treatment group (A and B) and expressed as mean ± SD; *significantly different from sham-operated controls (P < 0.05). The mortality in the BDL only group at the end of the experiment (n = 30 each group) was significantly different from other groups (P < 0.05)