Trial reportNutrition research (New York, N.Y.)2015
Zinc supplementation reduced DNA breaks in Ethiopian women.
Trial report in Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Methods of Assessment of Zinc Status in Humans: An Updated Review and Meta-analysis.Nutrition reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A moderate increase in dietary zinc reduces DNA strand breaks in leukocytes and alters plasma proteins without changing plasma zinc concentrations.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Trial
- Zinc as a Mechanism-Based Strategy for Mitigation of Metals Toxicity.Current environmental health reports · 2025Review
- Protective role of dietary zinc on DNA damage, oxidative stress, and metal toxicity.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2025Review
- Biochemical Markers of Zinc Nutrition.Biological trace element research · 2024Review
- Correlation between Selenium and Zinc Levels and Survival among Prostate Cancer Patients.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Advancing nutrition science to meet evolving global health needs.European journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Zinc: From Biological Functions to Therapeutic Potential.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Zinc Fortification: Current Trends and Strategies.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Influence of zinc levels on the toxic manifestations of lead exposure among the occupationally exposed workers.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2019Article
- Changing levels of selenium and zinc in cadmium-exposed workers: probable association with the intensity of inflammation.Molecular biology reports · 2019Article
- Article
- Possible role of zinc in diminishing lead-related occupational stress-a zinc nutrition concern.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2017Article
- Review
- Zinc Supplementation in a Randomized Controlled Trial Decreased ZIP4 and ZIP8 mRNA Abundance in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Adult Women.Nutrition and metabolic insights · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Assessment of zinc status remains a challenge largely because serum/plasma zinc may not accurately reflect an individual's zinc status. The comet assay, a sensitive method capable of detecting intracellular DNA strand breaks, may serve as a functional biomarker of zinc status. We hypothesized that effects of zinc supplementation on intracellular DNA damage could be assessed from samples collected in field studies in Ethiopia using the comet assay. Forty women, from villages where reported consumption of meat was less than once per month and phytate levels were high, received 20 mg zinc as zinc sulfate or placebo daily for 17 days in a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Plasma zinc concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Cells from whole blood at the baseline and end point of the study were embedded in agarose, electrophoresed, and stained before being scored by an investigator blinded to the treatments. Although zinc supplementation did not significantly affect plasma zinc, mean (± SEM) comet tail moment measurement of supplemented women decreased from 39.7 ± 2.7 to 30.0 ± 1.8 (P< .005), indicating a decrease in DNA strand breaks in zinc-supplemented individuals. These findings demonstrated that the comet assay could be used as a functional assay to assess the effects of zinc supplementation on DNA integrity in samples collected in a field setting where food sources of bioavailable zinc are limited. Furthermore, the comet assay was sufficiently sensitive to detect changes in zinc status as a result of supplementation despite no significant changes in plasma zinc.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.