Plasma zinc in hypertension/toxemia and other reproductive variables in adolescent pregnancy

Abstract

A study was conducted at Charity Hospital, New Orleans, among 272 adolescent pregnant women to ascertain the relationship of pregnancy outcome to plasma zinc level measured once at the time of enrollment. Regression analyses were performed on zinc status versus parameters concerning success of pregnancy corrected for gestational stage at specimen collection. Analysis of variance was performed on groups according to presence or absence of complications, with analyses of covariance used to analyze dichotomous groups. Low, though widely variable, plasma zinc levels were found (mean = 58 +/- 12.6 micrograms/dl). Zinc values differed significantly by gestational stage at collection, the regression coefficient indicating a decline of 0.07 micrograms/dl/day. Plasma zinc level correlated significantly with Hb, red blood cells, ferritin, and folic acid. As to course of pregnancy, women experiencing hypertension/toxemia were found to have significantly lower plasma zinc level. Among infants displaying congenital defects at birth those with undescended testes and metatarsus varus were delivered by mothers whose plasma zinc was well below the mean for the group. These findings indicate the need to investigate the influence of dietary patterns and zinc intake on maternal plasma zinc level and pregnancy outcome, further delineating the role of zinc in human reproduction, particularly hypertension of pregnancy.

Dietary copper intake in artificially fed infants.

“…Dietary zinc deficiency has been postulated in young women who are not pregnant in West Scotland.22 The present study did not examine maternal intake but confirms the high plasma zinc concentrations reported in mothers of low birthweight infants during pregnancy.23 24 No overt pre-eclampsia occurred in our mothers of low birthweight infants. These same mothers had lower mean white blood cell zinc concentrations than mothers of normal birthweight infants at 28 weeks' gestation, at delivery, and at two months post partum.…”

Association between Maternal Zinc Status, Dietary Zinc Intake and Pregnancy Complications: A Systematic Review

“…Twelve studies were identified that measured maternal circulating zinc in countries where inadequate zinc intake is predicted to be <17%, and looked at the association with birthweight (Table 1) [38,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56]. Only one study, based on 3817 women in China, reported a 3.4-fold increase in the risk of delivering a LBW infant with serum zinc <560 µg/L (adjusted RR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.97, 5.91) [56].…”

“…Only one study, based on 3817 women in China, reported a 3.4-fold increase in the risk of delivering a LBW infant with serum zinc <560 µg/L (adjusted RR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.97, 5.91) [56]. This is in contrary to two studies that reported significantly higher zinc concentrations in women with an SGA infant in the third trimester [47,55]. However, these findings were based on a relatively small number of women: 40–51 pregnant women including 10–16 women with SGA.…”

Comparative study of copper, zinc, iron, ferritin, calcium and magnesium levels in pregnancy induced hypertension and normotensive primigravida mothers

“…15,16 Low serum Zn concentrations in preeclampsia mothers have been suggested to be partly due to reduced oestrogen and zinc binding-protein levels. 17 Placental Zn concentration has also been shown to be lower in preeclampsia in cross-sectional retrospective studies with placental Zn values positively correlating with birth weights.…”