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Serum Concentration of Zinc, Copper, Selenium, Manganese, and Cu/Zn Ratio in Children and Adolescents with Myopia

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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was the assessment of the serum concentration of antioxidant microelements—zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, and Cu/Zn ratio in children and adolescents with myopia. Eighty-three children were examined (mean age 14.36 ± 2.49 years) with myopia. The control group was 38 persons (mean age 12.89 ± 3.84 years). Each patient had complete eye examination. The serum concentration of zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Cu/Zn ratio, which is the indicator of the oxidative stress, was also calculated. The average serum concentration of zinc in myopic patients was significantly lower (0.865 ± 0.221 mg L−1) in comparison to the control group (1.054 ± 0.174 mg L−1). There was significantly higher Cu/Zn ratio in myopic patients (1.196 ± 0.452) in comparison to that in the control group (0.992 ± 0.203). The average serum concentration of selenium in the study group was significantly lower (40.23 ± 12.07 μg L−1) compared with that in the control group (46.00 ± 12.25 μg L−1). There were no essential differences between serum concentration of copper and manganese in the study group and the control group. Low serum concentration of zinc and selenium in myopic children may imply an association between insufficiency of these antioxidant microelements and the development of the myopia and could be the indication for zinc and selenium supplementation in the prevention of myopia. Significantly, higher Cu/Zn ratio in the study group can suggest the relationship between myopia and oxidative stress.

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Acknowledgments

The study was conducted with the use of equipment purchased by the Medical University of Bialystok as part of the OP DEP 2007-2013, Priority Axis I.3, contract No. POPW.01.03.00-20-022/09. The presented paper was financially supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant no. N/ST/ZB/15/001/1169 and N/ST/ZB/15/2/1169). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, The Medical University of Bialystok Children’s Clinical Hospital, Waszyngtona 17, 15-274, Bialystok, Poland

    Monika Fedor & Monika Matyskiela

  2. Department of Bromatology, Medical University of Bialystok, Mickiewicza 2D, 15-222, Białystok, Poland

    Katarzyna Socha, Jolanta Soroczyńska & Maria H. Borawska

  3. Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, Medical University of Bialystok, Waszyngtona 17, 15-274, Bialystok, Poland

    Beata Urban & Alina Bakunowicz-Łazarczyk

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  1. Monika Fedor
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  2. Katarzyna Socha
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  3. Beata Urban
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  4. Jolanta Soroczyńska
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Correspondence to Monika Fedor.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Fedor, M., Socha, K., Urban, B. et al. Serum Concentration of Zinc, Copper, Selenium, Manganese, and Cu/Zn Ratio in Children and Adolescents with Myopia. Biol Trace Elem Res 176, 1–9 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-016-0805-1

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