Zinc supports liver regeneration after partial resection.

Objectives: Safe removal of extensive liver tumor burdens depends on regeneration of the remnant liver, which requires a large amount of zinc over a short period of time. We studied how zinc influences regeneration.

Material and methods: We measured perioperative serum zinc concentrations after liver cancer diagnosis in 77 patients undergoing hepatectomy to determine how serum zinc affected short-term outcomes and remnant liver regeneration.

Results: Serum zinc concentration at diagnosis showed no correlation with inflammatory or nutritional parameters except for a weak correlation with the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio. When patients were divided into a high pre-hepatectomy zinc group (≥75 µg/dL, n= 39, H group) and a low zinc group (<75 µg/dL, n= 38, L group), short-term results such as mortality (p> 0.999), morbidity (p= 0.490), and hospital stay (p= 0.591) did not differ between groups. However, hypertrophy in the future liver remnant after hepatectomy in the H group (127.7 ± 24.7% of original volume) was greater than in the L group (115.9 ± 16.7%, p= 0.024). In a subgroup of patients with extended hepatectomy, hypertrophy was 130.9 ± 26.8% in the H group vs. 116.4 ± 16.5% in the L group (p= 0.037).

Conclusion: Greater serum zinc at diagnosis was associated with greater hypertrophy in the future liver remnant.