Serum essential trace elements and toxic metals in Chinese diabetic retinopathy patients

Abstract

Trace elements are essential for the proper functioning of proteins, enzymes, and transcriptional factors. However, toxic metals will compete with essential trace elements, and damage enzymatic activities and various physiological functions. We aimed to investigate the status of serum essential trace elements and toxic metals in Chinese diabetic retinopathy (DR) patients, and to analyze their associations.This retrospective study included 33 normal subjects (normal group), 44 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) patients with DR (DR group), and 58 T2D patients without DR (diabetes mellitus [DM] group). Serum levels of zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd), and cesium (Cs), were measured for all participants using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.The serum concentrations of Mn (0.0226 μg/L) and Zn (98.162 μg/L) were significantly lower in DR group, compared with both the DM group and normal group (P < 0.05). In contrast, the serum levels of Cs (0.0354 μg/L) and Cd (0.0149 μg/L) were significantly higher in DR group, compared with the normal group (Cs: z = 3.136, P = .002; Cd: z = 3.766, P