author(s)
Praveen Kumar Gupta and Shalini Vaswani

abstract
Minerals are broadly classified as macro (major) or micro (trace) elements. The third category of minerals that includes vanadium, chromium, boron, lithium, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium and silicon are the ‘ultra trace elements or occasionally beneficial elements’. Among several metals, vanadium has emerged as an extremely potent agent with insulin-like properties. These insulin-like properties has been demonstrated in isolated cells, tissues different animal models of type I and type II diabetes as well as a limited number of human subjects. Effect of vanadium on bio energetic processes such as phosphorylation/dephosphorylation and activation and deactivation of various key enzymes. Bone tissue is an important reservoir of growth factors (GFs) and proteins related to bone development. The GFs act locally to modulate bone formation by stimulating osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. According to recent study on Hariana heifers - the activity of SOD was significantly higher (p< 0.001), whereas mean values of LPO decreased linearly (p < 0.05), plasma total antioxidant status (TAS) also increased linearly (p < 0.05), plasma IgG levels increased linearly (p < 0.05) and plasma IGF-1 concentrations showed significant effect (p < 0.05) in V supplemented groups and plasma T4 concentration increased linearly (p < 0.05). According to these results, V supplementation may play a role in modulating the immunity and antioxidant status of growing Hariana heifers.