Markers of Systemic Inflammation and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction Are Not Reduced by Zinc or Multivitamins in Tanzanian Infants: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 590 infants were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were infants, both men and women.

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.

Neither the infants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

EED (anti-flagellin and anti-lipopolysaccharide immunoglobulins), systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein), and growth biomarkers (insulin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3) were measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a subsample of 590 infants at 6 weeks and 6 months of age.

EED biomarkers also were measured in 162 infants at 12 months of age.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Biomarkers, Dietary Supplements, Inflammation, Intestinal Diseases, Intestine, Small, Tanzania and Vitamins.

Author keywords: C-reactive protein, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, anti-LPS, anti-flagellin, insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 and insulin-like growth factor-1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 590 infants.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2019 (The Journal of pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

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