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Relationship Between Plasma Copper Concentration and Body Fat Distribution in Children in China: a Cross-Sectional Study

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Abstract

This study aimed to explore the association of the plasma copper concentration with body fat distribution and the potential mediating effect of inflammation status in children. A total of 454 children were recruited in this study. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was applied to measure the fat mass (FM) and fat mass percentages (FM%) at whole body, trunk, appendicular, android, and gynoid regions. Android to gynoid fat mass ratio and fat mass to lean mass (FM/LM) ratio at whole body, trunk, and appendicular sites were calculated. Plasma copper concentration was measured via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. C-reactive protein (CRP) was determined by ELISA. After adjusting for covariates, multiple linear regression analyses showed that, for every additional unit increase in the plasma copper concentration, the FM, FM%, and FM/LM at whole body and subregions increased by 0.030–0.472 kg (P < 0.001–0.019), 0.013–1.04% (P = 0.007–0.042), and 0.021–0.030 (P < 0.001), respectively. Mediating analysis suggested that CRP significantly mediated 22.0–30.6% (P < 0.001) of the estimated association of copper with FM% and FM/LM at whole body and limbs. Thus, children with higher plasma levels of copper tended to have a higher regional and overall body fat deposition, and this relationship was partly mediated by inflammatory status.

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Funding

This work received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81903347 and No. 81973045), and the Fund from Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics/Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center (No. YIP-2019-043).

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Author notes

  1. Jingjing Liang and Fengyan Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Health Care, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510623, China

    Jingjing Liang, Bingjie Ma & Suifang Lin

  2. Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China

    Fengyan Chen, Yan Li & Zheqing Zhang

  3. Department of Child Health Care, Guangzhou Baiyun District Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Guangzhou, 510400, China

    Guoqing Fang & Xin Zhang

  4. Department of Hygiene Detection Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China

    Jialiang Pan

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  1. Jingjing Liang
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Correspondence to Zheqing Zhang.

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All procedures used in this study were approved by the ethics committee of the School of Public Health at Sun Yat-sen University.

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Liang, J., Chen, F., Fang, G. et al. Relationship Between Plasma Copper Concentration and Body Fat Distribution in Children in China: a Cross-Sectional Study. Biol Trace Elem Res 198, 430–439 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02105-y

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