Plasma extracellular superoxide dismutase activity in healthy pregnant women is not influenced by zinc supplementation.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Sixty-three women were selected from 580 African-American women who participated in a clinical trial to evaluate the effect of prenatal zinc supplementation on pregnancy outcome.

Why It Was Studied

The researchers hypothesized that plasma extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) activity reflects the zinc nutriture of healthy pregnant women.

In the trial, a positive effect of zinc supplementation on birthweight was observed, indicating that the population as a whole had suboptimal zinc nutriture.

Who Took Part

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alkaline Phosphatase, Copper, Extracellular Space, Micronutrients, Nutritional Requirements, Pregnancy Outcome and Superoxide Dismutase.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The publication is from 2001 (Biological trace element research), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.