Abstract
The present study focused on whether serum extracellular superoxide dimutase (EC-SOD) activity can be used as a functional indicator of marginal zinc deficiency in humans. Subjects in this study were 444 healthy adults over 30 yr of age living a normal rural life in Kyunggi province, Korea. The mean dietary zinc intake of subjects obtained from one 24-h recall was 6.41 ± 4.35 mg and the average serum zinc concentration of the subjects was 11.06 ± 2.44 μmol/L. Subjects were divided into three groups by serum zinc concentrations: adequate (serum zinc >10.7 μmol/L), low (serum zinc 9.0- 10.7 μmol/L), and very low (serum zinc <9.0 μmol/L) groups. A total of 50 subjects were selected from the three groups for analysis of EC-SOD activities. The EC-SOD activity of subjects increased with increasing serum zinc concentrations, and the activities of the three groups were significantly different as indicated by the Kruskal-Wallis test (p = 0.0239). Also, serum EC-SOD activities were significantly correlated with serum zinc concentrations (r = 0.289, p = 0.04). Serum EC-SOD activities, however, were not significantly correlated to the dietary zinc intakes. In conclusion, these results show that EC-SOD activities are decreased in subjects with low serum zinc concentrations and suggest that EC-SOD activity may be a functional indicator of zinc nutritional status in humans.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 45-57 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Biological Trace Element Research |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| State | Published - 1999 |
Keywords
- Dietary zinc intake
- Serum EC-SOD
- Serum zinc
- Zinc status
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Endocrinology
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism