Mills C F
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1979 Dec 11;288(1026):51-63. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1979.0090.
Trace element deficiency and toxicity in animals induces a wide variety of clinical effects although few are sufficiently specific to permit diagnosis without supporting investigation of changes in tissue trace element content or of the activity of metabolic processes influenced by trace element supply. Study of such trace element dependent processes has shown that extensive changes often arise before overt signs of disease appear. Some of these subclinical effects have pathological consequences and thus cannot be ignored when seeking correlations between geochemical anomalies and disease incidence. Many past estimates of the quantitative requirements of animals for the essential trace elements are imprecise. Although recent work is providing clearer definition of requirements, many common dietary components have a marked influence upon the efficiency with which such elements can be utilized from the diet. Recent evidence indicates that such antagonists influence both the absorption and the subsequent fate of essential and toxic elements in body tissues and these processes have to be taken into account when investigating the aetiology of disorders believed to be attributable to anomalies in trace element supply. Their existence is not always detectable if attention is confined to the trace element analysis of body tissues or to the nature of clinical lesions. Provided the complexity of soil-plant-animal relations with respect to trace element supply is fully recognized in the interpretation of data, the geochemical approach to the initial recognition of areas associated with a high risk of anomalies in trace element supply to animals and man has considerable potential value. This is already apparent from investigations upon the incidence of trace element problems in animals. As yet, its validity for similar purposes in man is less fully established.
动物体内微量元素的缺乏和中毒会引发各种各样的临床症状，不过，若不辅助检测组织中微量元素含量的变化或受微量元素供应影响的代谢过程的活性，很少有症状能特异性地足以用于诊断。对这类依赖微量元素的过程的研究表明，在疾病的明显症状出现之前，往往已经发生了广泛的变化。其中一些亚临床效应具有病理后果，因此在探寻地球化学异常与疾病发病率之间的相关性时，不能忽视这些效应。过去对动物必需微量元素定量需求的许多估计并不精确。尽管近期的研究工作正在更清晰地界定这些需求，但许多常见的饮食成分对从饮食中利用此类元素的效率有显著影响。最近的证据表明，这些拮抗剂会影响必需元素和有毒元素在身体组织中的吸收及后续命运，在调查被认为归因于微量元素供应异常的疾病病因时，必须考虑这些过程。如果仅关注身体组织的微量元素分析或临床病变的性质，它们的存在并不总是能被检测到。在解释数据时，只要充分认识到土壤 - 植物 - 动物在微量元素供应方面关系的复杂性，地球化学方法对于初步识别与动物和人类微量元素供应异常高风险相关的区域具有相当大的潜在价值。这一点已在对动物微量元素问题发生率的调查中显现出来。然而，其在人类类似目的方面的有效性尚未得到充分证实。
