Component
Human circulating thymulin bioassay activity
1 recorded relationships. Experimental role, claim status and evidence remain attached to each record.
How nutrients influence it
Every nutrient with a recorded effect on this component, credited to the nutrient that acted rather than the chapter that recorded it. Open a nutrient to see the findings and the conditions they were measured under.
Other things that act on it
Enzymes, hormones, genes, and other components with a recorded effect. These are not nutrients, so they do not count toward the arrows above. Each finding names the chapter that recorded it.
How nutrients reach it in more than one step
Chains of two or more recorded steps that end here, grouped by the nutrient they start from. Each step is a separate finding, so a chain is a route a mechanism could take, not proof that it does.
Tracing routes…
What it does
Every recorded relationship this component is part of, grouped by its role. Plain wording comes first; the technical statement follows.
What acts on it
Mild zinc deficiency was accompanied by reduced thymulin bioactivity despite normal plasma zinc in the small human study; repletion or laboratory zinc treatment restored activity.
Experimental context and source evidence
- availability_state
- nutrient_deficiency Imported condition classification; unverified.
- evidence_access
- Primary bibliographic record and abstract checked; full methods/figures not comprehensively reviewed.
- experimental_contrast
- {"intervention": "Mild zinc deficiency or controlled dietary depletion", "comparator": "Zinc-replete or repleted comparison", "endpoint": "Mild zinc deficiency was accompanied by reduced thymulin bioactivity despite normal plasma zinc in the small human study; repletion or laboratory zinc treatment restored activity.", "effect_direction": "decrease", "combination": "single", "conditions": []} Explicit extracted experimental comparison; source-derived draft.
- experimental_model
- Two dietary-depletion volunteers; six mildly zinc-deficient sickle-cell adults and six without sickle-cell anemia. Not population diagnostic validation.
- interpretation_status
- Source-derived extraction of a fact-checked reference; access is explicit, not independent raw-data verification.
- limitations
- Interpret only within the recorded preparation, exposure and comparator. The complete source passage retains qualifications; unspecified doses/timing have not been extracted here. No clinical efficacy, nutrient deficiency or unique molecular mediation is inferred.
- plain_language
- Mild zinc deficiency was accompanied by reduced thymulin bioactivity despite normal plasma zinc in the small human study; repletion or laboratory zinc treatment restored activity.
- primary_references
- Serum thymulin in human zinc deficiency. | 1988 | DOI 10.1172/jci113717 | PMID 3262625 | https://www.jci.org/articles/view/113717
- source_locator
- Line 1 of the separately retained human zinc/thymulin excerpt; originally in the reviewed thymulin reference.
- trigger_kind
- nutrient_deficiency Imported condition classification; unverified.
Zinc availability and human thymulin bioactivity: study excerpt · lines 1–1
Exact excerpt from the 3 October 2026 reviewed thymulin reference. Primary study: Prasad et al. 1988, https://www.jci.org/articles/view/113717. Small human proof of concept; not population diagnostic validation. · supports · Two dietary-depletion volunteers; six mildly zinc-deficient sickle-cell adults and six without sickle-cell anemia. Not population diagnostic validation. · Recorded from source · Recorded from source
The strongest small human study included two dietary-depletion volunteers, six mildly zinc-deficient adults with sickle-cell anemia and six without it. Plasma zinc was normal, while cellular zinc assessments suggested deficiency. Thymulin bioactivity fell and recovered with zinc repletion or laboratory zinc treatment; immune readouts also changed. This demonstrates a useful **human proof of concept**, not population-wide diagnostic accuracy or proof that thymulin mediated every benefit of zinc. [Prasad et al., 1988](https://www.jci.org/articles/view/113717)
Complete structured claim and evidence
The events it takes part in
A mechanism often involves more than two components. These are the full events, with every participant and its role.
Situations it appears in
Low-supply and faulty-machinery situations recorded in the chapters where this component plays a part.
In the sources
Preserved passages that mention this component, quoted exactly. Open one to read it in context.
Open hypotheses
Proposed ideas that involve this component. They are labeled as hypotheses and do not change any recorded statement.
This is a research prototype built from draft material. It is not medical advice, and its statements still await verification against the original studies.