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Associations between whole blood trace elements concentrations and HbA1c levels in patients with type 2 diabetes

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Abstract

Previous researches have been conducted to study the associations of trace elements on Type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk. The present study focuses on the evaluation of potential associations between trace elements and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in patients with T2D, via the determination of their levels in human whole blood. 100 diabetes without complications, 75 prediabetes and 40 apparently healthy subjects were studied. The levels of eleven trace elements including lithium (Li), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), strontium (Sr) and molybdenum (Mo) were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The levels of fasting glucose, HbA1c, Hemoglobin, lipid, liver function, kidney function, thyroid function and demographic data were obtained from the Laboratory Information System. Nonparametric correlation (Spearman) was used to analyze the relationship between trace elements and HbA1c. The contents of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn and Mo in diabetes increased comparing with the healthy subject while Li decreased. But the levels of Li, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Se and Mo negatively correlated with HbA1c in the diabetes subjects (r value: − 0.2189, − 0.2421, − 0.3260, − 0.2744, − 0.2812, − 0.2456, − 0.2240; 95% confidence interval − 0.4032 to − 0.0176, − 0.4235 to − 0.0420, − 0.4955 to − 0.1326, − 0.4515 to − 0.0765, − 0.4573 to − 0.0838, − 0.4266 to − 0.0458, − 0.4076 to − 0.0229; p < 0.05, p < 0.05, p < 0.001, p < 0.01, p < 0.01, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). Accordingly, the contents of V, Cr, Mn and Se showed lower in HbA1c ≥ 7.0% group in contrast to HbA1c < 7.0% group. No correlation of HbA1c (or FBG) and trace elements was found in the healthy subjects. Trace element levels and metabolic abnormalities of blood glucose may be mutually affected. The extra supplement of trace elements needs to be cautious.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

T2D:

Type 2 diabetes

BMI:

Body mass index

Fe:

Iron

Cu:

Copper

Zn:

Zinc

Mn:

Manganese

Se:

Selenium

Sr:

Strontium

Li:

Lithium

V:

Vanadium

Cr:

Chromium

Mo:

Molybdenum

Co:

Cobalt

ICP-MS:

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

FBG:

Fasting blood-glucose

HbA1c:

Hemoglobin A1

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank all those who participated in this study.

Funding

This work was financially supported by grants from the Key Development Program of Shandong Province (Grant No.:2018GSF118116), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No.: ZR2020MH307) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81101484).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, No. 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Fang Luan, Yanqiu Xu, Xuerui Jiang & Yong Wang

  2. Department of Pediatry, Shandong Provincial Hospital Afliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Yuan Chen

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Bin Liu

Authors
  1. Fang Luan
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  2. Yuan Chen
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  3. Yanqiu Xu
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  4. Xuerui Jiang
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  5. Bin Liu
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  6. Yong Wang
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Contributions

FL and YW conceived and designed study. YC, YX, and XJ contributed to acquisition of data. FL, BL and YW analyzed the data and wrote the paper. All authors assisted in revising the text and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Wang.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shandong First Medical University in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (ethical approval number is NSFC: No. 2021-112).

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Not applicable.

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Participants were provided a study overview and verbal consent was attained.

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Luan, F., Chen, Y., Xu, Y. et al. Associations between whole blood trace elements concentrations and HbA1c levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. Biometals 35, 1011–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-022-00419-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-022-00419-z

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