Iron supplements inhibit zinc but not copper absorption in vivo in ileostomy subjects

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Copper (Supplement).

The researchers quantified the interaction between different amounts of administered iron and the absorption of zinc and copper in humans.

Why It Was Studied

Iron supplements may inhibit intestinal zinc and copper uptake because these elements may compete for binding to a transporter molecule (divalent metal transporter 1) that is located on the apical side of the small intestinal epithelium.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Subjects collected ileostomy effluent and urine for 24 h and 7 d, respectively.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Because people in this Copper (Supplement) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Zinc status and true zinc absorption were calculated from the urinary excretion of the zinc isotopes.

Apparent copper absorption was calculated from ileostomy effluent excretion of the orally administered copper isotopes.

What Was Measured

Iron supplements may inhibit intestinal zinc and copper uptake because these elements may compete for binding to a transporter molecule (divalent metal transporter 1) that is located on the apical side of the small intestinal epithelium.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include C-Reactive Protein, Copper, Dietary Supplements, Drug Interactions, Ferritins, Ferrous Compounds and Hematocrit.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Copper (Supplement).

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.