ArticleMetabolic brain disease2016
Evaluation of whole blood zinc and copper levels in children with autism spectrum disorder.
Article in Metabolic brain disease, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Zinc deficiency and zinc/copper ratio imbalance in autism spectrum disorder: a reanalysis of six multinational studies.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Association between zinc status and autism spectrum disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Zinc Status and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Elevated Copper Level in Schizophrenia Results in Neurotransmitter and Cognitive Alteration.Biological trace element research · 2026Article
- Copper deficiency impairs oligodendrocyte maturation and social behavior via mitophagy and mTOR suppression in ASD.Science advances · 2026Article
- Urinary Porphyrin Profiles and Trace Element Imbalances in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Insights into Environmental and Metabolic Biomarkers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Biomarkers for tracking metabolic changes pre-post nutritional epigenetics diet/intervention to prevent autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders in children.World journal of experimental medicine · 2025Review
- Gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate system dysregulation in a small population of Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Article
- Relationship between reduced serum ceruloplasmin levels and executive dysfunction in hospitalized schizophrenia patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Plasma zinc, copper and serum ceruloplasmin levels of autism spectrum disorder children in Bangladesh.Heliyon · 2023Article
- The Role of Zinc and NMDA Receptors in Autism Spectrum Disorders.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Association of Zn and Cu Levels in Cord Blood and Maternal Milk with Pregnancy Outcomes among the Slovenian Population.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Dietary zinc supplementation rescues fear-based learning and synaptic function in the Tbr1Molecular autism · 2022Article
- [Association between serum trace elements and core symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder: a national multicenter survey].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2021Article
- Zinc and Copper Brain Levels and Expression of Neurotransmitter Receptors in Two Rat ASD Models.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2021Article
- The status of chemical elements in the blood plasma of children with autism spectrum disorder in Tunisia: a case-control study.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
- ElectroSens Platform with a Polyelectrolyte-Based Carbon Fiber Sensor for Point-of-Care Analysis of Zn in Blood and Urine.ACS omega · 2020Article
- Early life metal exposure dysregulates cellular bioenergetics in children with regressive autism spectrum disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
- Oxidative Stress in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Molecular neurobiology · 2020Review
- Abnormal Levels of Metal Micronutrients and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Perspective Review.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) are important trace elements for cognitive development and normal neurological functioning. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurological disorder, which has previously been associated with the levels of some trace elements in the blood. However, clinical data regarding the potential implication of Zn and Cu in patients with ASD are still insufficient. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the whole blood levels of Zn and Cu in a cohort of 28 children with ASD and 28 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Whole blood Zn and Cu levels were assessed using inductively-coupled plasma-sector field mass spectrometry. Both in the control and in the ASD group, the values of whole blood Cu and Zn were characterized by a Gaussian distribution. The results indicate that the ASD children were characterized by ~10 % (p = 0.005) and ~12 % (p = 0.015) lower levels of whole blood Zn and Zn/Cu ratio, respectively, in comparison to controls. No significant difference in whole blood Cu was observed. However, Cu/Zn ratio was ~15 % (p = 0.008) higher in ASD children than that in the control ones. The results of the present study may be indicative of Zn deficiency in ASD children. Taking into account Zn-mediated up-regulation of metallothionein (MT) gene expression, these findings suggest a possible alteration in the functioning of the neuroprotective MT system. However, further investigations are required to test this hypothesis.
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