The role of zinc on anti-newcastle disease virus specific antibody response and agranulocytes count in rabbits treated with methotrexate and prednisolone

Zinc (zn) plays a pivotal role in highly proliferative tissues including immune system. the long-term therapy of neoplastic and autoimmune disorders is associated with immunosuppression and myleosuppression. in the current study role of zn on anti-newcastle disease virus response and agranulocytes count of methotrexate and prednisolone treated rabbits. thirty six healthy rabbits were randomly segregated into six groups (group i to vi) each containing six rabbits. oil based newcastle disease virus (ndv) vaccine was administered subcutaneously to rabbits of all the groups at day 0 and 21 and after one week, all the groups received zn, (zn + prednisolone), prednisolone, (zn + methotrexate) methotrexate orally from day 7 to day 21, except the control. the serum antibody titer, total and differential leukocyte count were measured weekly for 6 weeks. the administration of zinc in combination with methotrexate showed same antibody titer as that of the control suggesting that zn has ability to counteract the methotrexate-induced immunosuppression. however, zn did not show any significant impact in combination with prednisolone (p<0.05). the results of the present study indicate that co-administration of zn and methotrexate is beneficial in the activity of immune system.