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The association between serum copper concentrations and cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and adolescents in NHANES

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Abstract

Copper is an essential element in human beings, alterations in serum copper levels could potentially have effect on human health. To date, no data are available regarding how serum copper affects cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in children and adolescents. We examined the association between serum copper levels and CVD risk factors in children and adolescents. We analyzed data consisting of 1427 subjects from a nationally representative sample of the US population in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2011 to 2014. The CVD risk factors included total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, glycohemoglobin, fasting insulin, and blood pressure. Multivariate and generalized linear regressions were performed to investigate associations adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, poverty:income ratio (PIR), BMI, energy intake, and physical activity. We found significant associations between serum copper and total cholesterol (coefficient = 0.132; 95% CI 0.081, 0.182; P for trend < 0.001), glycohemoglobin (coefficient = 0.044; 95% CI 0.020, 0.069; P < 0.001), and fasting insulin (coefficient = 0.730; 95% CI 0.410, 1.050; P < 0.001) among the included participants. Moreover, in the generalized linear models, subjects with the highest copper levels demonstrated a 0.83% (95% CI 0.44%, 1.24%) greater increase in serum total cholesterol (p for trend < 0.001) when compared to participants with the lowest copper concentrations. Our results provide the first epidemiological evidence that serum copper concentrations are associated with total cholesterol concentrations in children and adolescents. However, the underlying mechanisms still need further exploration.

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Funding

This work was supported by funding from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFSF110166 and 2016YFC1101001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81370277), the Jiangsu Provincial Special Program of Medical Science in China (BL2013003), the Maternal and Child Health Research Project of Jiangsu Province (F201755), and the Program for Postgraduates Research Innovation in University of Jiangsu Province (KYCX17_1263).

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  1. Xiaodong Zang, Hesuyuan Huang, and Zhulun Zhuang contributed equally to the present study and should be regarded as joint first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 72 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Xiaodong Zang, Hesuyuan Huang, Zhulun Zhuang, Runsen Chen, Zongyun Xie, Cheng Xu & Xuming Mo

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  1. Xiaodong Zang
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  2. Hesuyuan Huang
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  3. Zhulun Zhuang
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  5. Zongyun Xie
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  6. Cheng Xu
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  7. Xuming Mo
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Contributions

Xiaodong Zang and Hesuyuan Huang wrote the main manuscript text; Zhulun Zhuang, Runsen Chen, and Zongyun Xie prepared Tables 1, 2, 3, 4 and Figs. 1, 2, 3 and supplemental information. Cheng Xu and Xuming Mo were responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xuming Mo.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Zang, X., Huang, H., Zhuang, Z. et al. The association between serum copper concentrations and cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and adolescents in NHANES. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 16951–16958 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1816-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1816-6

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