Serum Essential Trace Element Status in Women and the Risk of Endometrial Diseases: a Case–Control Study

Endometrial diseases, including uterine fibroids, polyps, intrauterine adhesion, endometritis, etc., are the major causes of infertility among women. However, the association between essential trace element status in women and the risk of endometrial disease is limited and unclear. This study aimed to investigate this association using a case–control study design; a total of 302 women patients with endometrial diseases and 302 healthy women were included. Compared to women in the control group, serum selenium (Se) (p = 0.024) and zinc (Zn) (p = 0.017) levels were significantly lower, while copper (Cu) (p = 0.004) and molybdenum (Mo) (p = 0.005) levels were significantly higher among women with endometrial diseases. In addition, compared to women in the first quartile of the copper/zinc (Cu/Zn) ratio value group, the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of endometrial diseases were 1.50 (1.05, 2.14), 1.68 (1.18, 2.39), and 1.47 (1.02, 2.10), respectively, in the second, third, and fourth quartile of the Cu/Zn ratio value group (p trend = 0.047). In addition, the results from restricted cubic splines showed that the dose–response relationships of serum levels of these essential elements with the risk of endometrial diseases were nonlinear for Se, Cu, and Zn and relatively linear for Mo and Cu/Zn ratio. The present study showed serum levels of Zn and Se among women with endometrial diseases were significantly lower compared to that among healthy women, while serum levels of Cu and Mo were significantly higher, in addition, the serum Cu/Zn ratio value was also significantly and positively associated with the risk of endometrial diseases. Similar content being viewed by others Data Availability The data underlying this article will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author. Code Availability Not applicable.

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The authors thank all the medical staff in the First Afflicted Hospital of Anhui Medical University in Anhui, China, for recruiting subjects and collecting specimens. The authors are grateful to the Scientific Research Center in Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University for the technical support in our experiment. Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC-U20A20350, NSFC-82173532, NSFC-81971455, NSFC-81871216, and NSFC-81601345), Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (2021M700181), Excellent Young Talents Fund Program of Higher Education Institutions of Anhui Province (gxyq2021173), and the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui (1908085MH244). Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions D.M.J. and X.F.X. designed the experiments. D.Y.L., T.T.J., and X.W. experimented and wrote the manuscript. Z.K.Z. and L.C.S. analyzed the statistical data. T.Y. collected samples. W.W.Z. and K.Z. collated patients’ data. Y.J.L. and D.L. reviewed the data statistics. Y.X.C. and C.M.L. revised the manuscript. Corresponding authors Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval This study was approved by the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Anhui Medical University (20160270). Consent to Participate All participants signed an informed consent form for the use of the samples. Consent for Publication The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication. Conflict of Interest The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Danyang Li, Tingting Jiang, and Xin Wang are the equal first authors. Supplementary Information Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Li, D., Jiang, T., Wang, X. et al. Serum Essential Trace Element Status in Women and the Risk of Endometrial Diseases: a Case–Control Study. Biol Trace Elem Res 201, 2151–2161 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03328-x Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03328-x