We studied the mechanism of zinc action on deoxythymidine kinase (TK) enzyme in a cell culture model HUT-78 cells.  These HUT-78 cells are human lymphoblast cell culture line and are very suitable for studies of Th cell functions.  We developed techniques to culture HUT-78 cells in both zinc deficient and zinc sufficient conditions. We showed that for the first time that zinc was required for the gene expression of deoxythymidine kinase.

Ref.

Prasad, A.S., Beck, F.W.J., Endre, L. Handschu, W., KuKuruga, M., Kumar, G. Zinc deficiency affects cell cycle and deoxythymidine kinase (TK) gene expression in HUT-78 cells. J. Lab. Clin. Med., 128:51-60, 1996.