Highly effective antiviral treatment can suppress HIV-1 infection, but the chronic effects of HIV-1-related viral proteins, including gp120 and Tat, on organs such as the lungs can be damaging. HIV-1 transgenic rodent models are useful for studying the systemic effects of these proteins independently of viral infection. We have previously shown that HIV-1 transgene expression (and therefore, HIV-1-related protein expression) in rats decreases alveolar macrophage zinc levels and phagocytic capacity by unknown mechanisms. We hypothesized that HIV-1 transgene expression induces chronic inflammation and zinc sequestration within the liver and thereby decreases zinc bioavailability in the lung. We examined the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), the zinc storage protein, metallothionein (MT1), and the zinc exporter, ZNT1 in the livers and the lungs of wild type and HIV-1 transgenic rats ± dietary zinc supplementation. In addition, we measured zinc levels, the zinc importing protein ZIP1, and the phagocytic capacity in the alveolar macrophages.