Objectives The objective of this metallomics study is to investigate comprehensively some relationships between cancer risk and minerals, including essential and toxic metals. Methods Twenty-four minerals including essential and toxic metals in scalp hair samples from 124 solid-cancer patients and 86 control subjects were measured with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the association of cancer with minerals was statistically analyzed with multiple logistic regression analysis. Results Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that several minerals are significantly correlated to cancer, positively or inversely. The most cancer-correlated mineral was iodine (I) with the highest correlation coefficient of r = 0.301, followed by arsenic (As; r = 0.267), zinc (Zn; r = 0.261), and sodium (Na; r = 0.190), with p \ 0.01 for each case. In contrast, selenium (Se) was inversely correlated to cancer (r = -0.161, p \ 0.05), followed by vanadium (V) (r = -0.128). Multiple linear regression value was highly significantly correlated with probability of cancer (R 2 = 0.437, p \ 0.0001), and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated to be 0.918. In addition, using contingency table analysis and the chi-square test, the precision of discrimination for cancer was estimated to be 0.871 (chi-square = 99.1, p \ 0.0001). Conclusions These findings suggest that some minerals such as arsenic, selenium, and probably iodine, zinc, sodium, and vanadium contribute to regulation of cancer and also that metallomics study using multiple logistic regression analysis is a useful tool for estimating cancer risk.

000In order to examine possible association of aging with minerals, we measured hair concentrations of 24 bio-elements including essential minerals and toxic metals in over 1500 male Japanese adults aged 20-60 years. Several minerals were found to be significantly and positively or inversely correlated to aging. The most age-correlated element was mercury (Hg) with the highest regression coefficient of r = 0.417, followed by boron (B) (r = 0.189), potassium (K) (r = 0.186), arsenic (As) (r = 0.178), selenium (Se) (r = 0.153) and sodium (Na) (r = 0.131) with the p-value of p <0.0000 for every element. Using the regression equation of Age = 13.9 Log Hg -12.5 obtained, a 10-fold increase in mercury level was estimated to associate with a 13.9-year increment in aging. The most inverse-correlated mineral to aging was calcium (Ca) (r = -0.207), followed by magnesium (Mg) (r = -0.174), cupper (Cu) (r = -0.147), and zinc (r = -0.105; p < 0.0001). 000These findings suggest that some minerals contribute to aging and higher dietary mercury intake may be associated with acceleration of aging. Dietary intake of the competitive minerals against mercury, such as calcium, magnesium, cupper and zinc, may be useful for controlling aging in Japanese.For the last several years, we have been measuring scalp hair mineral concentrations in over 50 thousand people ranging from infant to elderly, in order to assess the relationship between minerals and physical or mental disorders. In previous study on hair toxic metal levels in a total of 5846 Japanese, we demonstrated that there are two types in accumulation profile of toxic metals, and that infants and children are under high exposure to lead, cadmium or aluminum 1,2) .Mercury, especially organic methylmercury is well known to accumulate in kidney, liver and fat-rich tissues like brain and adipose tissue, and to exhibit an age-dependent increase profile with gender-difference in Japanese 1-3) . This toxic metal is well known to not only inhibit various enzymatic reactions and metabolic processes but also enhance lipid peroxidation, progression of atherosclerosis and the risk of myocardial infarction 4-7) .Aging is a complex, progressive and irreversible processes occurring to molecules, to cells and to the whole organisms, finally ending with death. Better understanding of molecular mechanisms of aging could not only improve medical care of the elderly, but also hold out some hope in finding feasible solution to slow down the aging process. The purpose of this study was to examine possible role of toxic metals and essential minerals in aging. In this study, 24 minerals in hair were measured in over 1500 of male Japanese adults aged 20-60 years, the relationship between the each mineral and aging was examined, and the association of mineral status "mineralome" with aging/anti-aging was discussed. Original Article Association of Aging with Minerals in Male Japanese Adults

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