Assessment of copper and zinc status in hair and urine of young women descendants of NIDDM parents

    June 1998 in “ Biological Trace Element Research ”
    Satish Kumar Taneja, Monika Mahajan, Sumedha Gupta, Kiran Pal Singh
    TLDR Young women with diabetic parents have high zinc and low copper levels.
    The study assessed copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) levels in hair and urine of young, healthy women with both parents diagnosed with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM descendants) compared to those without a family history of NIDDM or hypertension and NIDDM patients. It found that NIDDM descendants had significantly higher hair Zn levels than non-NIDDM descendants and lower hair Cu levels than both non-NIDDM descendants and NIDDM patients. Hyperzincuria was observed in some NIDDM patients, while hypocuperuria was present in all NIDDM descendants and patients. The findings suggested that NIDDM descendants had high Zn and low Cu reserves, potentially due to Cu-Zn antagonism.
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