Laboratório de Toxicologia e Essencialidade de Metais, Departamento de Análises Clínicas, Toxicológicas e Bromatológicas, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida do Café s/n, Monte Alegre, 14040-903, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2011 Dec;144(1-3):244-52. doi: 10.1007/s12011-011-9080-3. Epub 2011 May 24.
The purpose of this study was to investigate possible associations between Zn, Se, Cu, Mn, and Co concentrations in nails and asthma in a young population from a Southern Brazil city. Additionally, correlations between these chemical elements among asthmatic and non-asthmatic children were evaluated. Before nail collection (n = 165), children were asked to complete the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire. The concentrations of trace elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The chi-square test was used to evaluate the association between element concentrations in nails and the respiratory outcome. To evaluate correlations between the elements, we used the Spearman correlation test. For all tests, the significance level was set at 95% (P ≤ 0.05). Children included in the highest quartile of nail Se and Zn concentration presented a fivefold decrease in the prevalence ratio of asthma while children in the lowest Se range presented an almost 2.5-fold increase in the asthma prevalence ratio. There were weak to strong correlations between Cu vs. Zn, Cu vs. Co, Cu vs. Se, Zn vs. Se, Zn vs. Mn, and Mn vs. Co in both asthmatic and non-asthmatic children. Interestingly, non-asthmatics also presented correlations between Co vs. Se and Zn. Taken together, our results clearly demonstrated an association between concentrations of selenium and zinc and childhood asthma and the usefulness of nail as a noninvasive matrix to detect minerals imbalance in asthma patients.
本研究旨在探讨巴西南部城市年轻人群指甲中锌、硒、铜、锰和钴浓度与哮喘之间的可能关联。此外，还评估了这些化学元素在哮喘和非哮喘儿童之间的相关性。在采集指甲样本之前（n=165），要求儿童完成《儿童哮喘和过敏国际研究》问卷。通过电感耦合等离子体质谱法测定微量元素浓度。卡方检验用于评估指甲中元素浓度与呼吸结局之间的关联。为了评估元素之间的相关性，我们使用了 Spearman 相关检验。所有检验的显著性水平均设为 95%（P≤0.05）。指甲硒和锌浓度最高四分位的儿童哮喘患病率比值降低了五倍，而指甲硒浓度最低的儿童哮喘患病率比值增加了近 2.5 倍。在哮喘和非哮喘儿童中，铜与锌、铜与钴、铜与硒、锌与硒、锌与锰以及锰与钴之间存在弱到强的相关性。有趣的是，非哮喘儿童中钴与硒和锌之间也存在相关性。综上所述，我们的研究结果清楚地表明，硒和锌的浓度与儿童哮喘之间存在关联，指甲作为一种非侵入性基质，可用于检测哮喘患者矿物质失衡的情况。
