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Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren

Trace elements such as copper are essential micronutrients. Traditionally, copper has been studied in the context of micronutrient deficiencies. Recent studies in both animals and humans, however, have revealed that elevated blood copper can also have adverse effects on cognitive function since free...

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Autores principales: Zhou, Guoping, Ji, Xiaopeng, Cui, Naixue, Cao, Siyuan, Liu, Chang, Liu, Jianghong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26343713
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095331
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author Zhou, Guoping
Ji, Xiaopeng
Cui, Naixue
Cao, Siyuan
Liu, Chang
Liu, Jianghong
author_facet Zhou, Guoping
Ji, Xiaopeng
Cui, Naixue
Cao, Siyuan
Liu, Chang
Liu, Jianghong
author_sort Zhou, Guoping
collection PubMed
description Trace elements such as copper are essential micronutrients. Traditionally, copper has been studied in the context of micronutrient deficiencies. Recent studies in both animals and humans, however, have revealed that elevated blood copper can also have adverse effects on cognitive function since free copper can cross the blood-brain barrier and subsequently impose oxidative stress to neuronal cells. However, most of these human studies were conducted in adult populations with and without cognitive decline, and there are few studies on the effect of excess copper on cognitive function in children. This project seeks to look at the effects of elevated copper levels on cognitive development in a population of school age children (ages 10–14 years with mean age of 12.03 years and standard deviation (SD) of 0.44) from Jintan, China. Briefly, serum copper levels and working memory test scores were collected from a sample of 826 children with a mean serum copper level of 98.10 (SD 0.75). Copper level was considered as a categorical variable (taking the first group as those with as ≤84.3 μg/dL, the second group as >84.3 and ≤110.4 μg/dL, and the third group as >110.4 μg/dL with the cut-off values defined by the first and third quartiles of the sample). Results showed a significant association between high copper levels (>110.4 μg/dL) and poorer working memory in boys but this association was not seen in lower copper levels in either sex. These results suggests that in school age children, like in adults, elevated copper levels have the potential to adversely affect cognition.
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spelling pubmed-45865262015-10-06 Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren Zhou, Guoping Ji, Xiaopeng Cui, Naixue Cao, Siyuan Liu, Chang Liu, Jianghong Nutrients Article Trace elements such as copper are essential micronutrients. Traditionally, copper has been studied in the context of micronutrient deficiencies. Recent studies in both animals and humans, however, have revealed that elevated blood copper can also have adverse effects on cognitive function since free copper can cross the blood-brain barrier and subsequently impose oxidative stress to neuronal cells. However, most of these human studies were conducted in adult populations with and without cognitive decline, and there are few studies on the effect of excess copper on cognitive function in children. This project seeks to look at the effects of elevated copper levels on cognitive development in a population of school age children (ages 10–14 years with mean age of 12.03 years and standard deviation (SD) of 0.44) from Jintan, China. Briefly, serum copper levels and working memory test scores were collected from a sample of 826 children with a mean serum copper level of 98.10 (SD 0.75). Copper level was considered as a categorical variable (taking the first group as those with as ≤84.3 μg/dL, the second group as >84.3 and ≤110.4 μg/dL, and the third group as >110.4 μg/dL with the cut-off values defined by the first and third quartiles of the sample). Results showed a significant association between high copper levels (>110.4 μg/dL) and poorer working memory in boys but this association was not seen in lower copper levels in either sex. These results suggests that in school age children, like in adults, elevated copper levels have the potential to adversely affect cognition. MDPI 2015-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4586526/ /pubmed/26343713 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095331 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zhou, Guoping
Ji, Xiaopeng
Cui, Naixue
Cao, Siyuan
Liu, Chang
Liu, Jianghong
Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title_full Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title_fullStr Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title_full_unstemmed Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title_short Association between Serum Copper Status and Working Memory in Schoolchildren
title_sort association between serum copper status and working memory in schoolchildren
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26343713
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095331
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