. 2022 Nov 17;13:983954. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.983954

TABLE 7.

Relative bioavailability values (RBVs) of zinc based on the multiple regression of different biological indices on supplemental zinc intake.

Age	Dependent variable	Zn source	Regression coefficient ^a		RBV ^a		p-value ^b
Age	Dependent variable	Zn source	Slope	Se	%	Se
Day 7	Tibia Zn	ZnSO₄	11.70	2.05	100		0.432
		Zn-Met	13.55	2.04	116	14.6
		Zn-Gly	10.00	1.89	85	20.8
	Pancreas Zn	ZnSO₄	1.088	0.465	100		0.653
		Zn-Met	1.365	0.473	125	13.2
		Zn-Gly	1.077	0.441	99	14.3
	Pancreas MT	ZnSO₄	0.312 ^c	0.069	100		0.021
		Zn-Met	0.556 ^a	0.071	173	15.1
		Zn-Gly	0.451 ^b	0.072	144	12.8
	Pancreas MT mRNA	ZnSO₄	0.065	0.011	100		0.746
		Zn-Met	0.074	0.010	113	12.3
		Zn-Gly	0.065	0.014	99	16.2
Day14	Tibia Zn	ZnSO₄	1.578	0.613	100		0.468
		Zn-Met	1.730	0.562	110	10.6
		Zn-Gly	1.348	0.674	85	14.1
	Pancreas Zn	ZnSO₄	0.257	0.045	100		0.683
		Zn-Met	0.294	0.052	115	14.8
		Zn-Gly	0.259	0.043	101	13.6
	Pancreas MT	ZnSO₄	0.059 ^c	0.019	100		0.032
		Zn-Met	0.093 ^a	0.025	175	15.7
		Zn-Gly	0.074 ^b	0.022	139	14.8
	Pancreas MT mRNA	ZnSO₄	0.076 ^b	0.010	100		0.040
		Zn-Met	0.121 ^a	0.014	158	15.9
		Zn-Gly	0.068 ^b	0.010	90	10.2

MT, metallothionein; ZnSO₄, zinc sulfate; Zn-Met, zinc-bismethioninate chelate; and Zn-Gly, zinc-bisglycinate chelate.

^{^a}

The regression coefficients were based on all observations in each treatment (n = 8).

^{^b}

The relative bioavailability value (RBV) of zinc from Zn-Met or Zn-Gly was calculated by the ratio of slope (multiple linear regression) using ZnSO₄ as a standard (100%).

^{^c}

p-value for the difference in slope among Zn sources.

a-c Means without the same superscript letters in the same column differ (p < 0.05) for the respective dependent variable.