Marginal zinc deficiency alters the heart proteome of rats

< 0.05) were significantly changed by MZD, among which 163 proteins were up-regulated and 147 were down-regulated. Of these, 43 proteins are related to CVDs and 18 proteins are zinc-associated proteins. Gene Ontology and Pathway analysis revealed that 74 biological processes (BPs) and 37 pathways were significantly changed by MZD. This included six CVD-related BPs, such as regulation of heart rate, cardiac muscle contraction, regulation of ventricular cardiac muscle cell action potential, and regulation of blood pressure, and eight CVD-related pathways, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Our data show that marginal zinc deficiency after birth significantly alters cardiac protein expression and pathways related to CVDs.