Evaluation of Copper Status and Some Red Cell Parameters of Pregnant Women in Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria

Arvin Nwakulite,C C N Vincent,Chukwudi Ofodile Amaechi,Chukwuma J Okafor,Ejike Felix Chukwurah,Emmanuel Ifeanyi Obeagu,I L Okoroiwu,Richard Eze,Udunma Olive Chijioke

doi:10.9734/jpri/2021/v33i30a31616

Abstract

Copper is an essential trace mineral (micronutrient) that is naturally present in some foods and is available as a dietary supplement. Pregnancy, also known as gestation, is the time during which one or more offspring develops inside a woman.This study was desiged to assay the copper level of pregnant women in urban area and to evaluate the effect of the obtained valves on some blood parameters of the pregnant women. In this study, a total of 100 subjects and 50 controls was used. subjects were pregnant women while the controls were non-pregnant women. The copper level in subject was assayed with a serum copper test kit using automation with Bio E-lab fully automated chemistry analyzer and result of the complete blood count was gotten using Mindray Hematology analyzer. The mean for subjects (M=102.83±1.38) and control (M=102.68±0.94), p = 0.71. These results suggest that the difference between the copper level for subjects and controls is not really much.. The variables copper level and MCV were found to be slightly correlated, r(150) = ..018., p > .005. Additionally, copper levels in the subjects was also found to negatively correlated with MCH, r(150) = .907, p > .005. One-way analysis of variance showed that the correlation of copper levels was not significant on all of the red bloodcell parameters in the serum of the pregnant women.

Highlights

Copper is an essential trace mineral that is naturally present in some foods and is available as a dietary supplement
A total number of 100 pregnant women mean age 20 ± years were recruited from the maternity hospital and their blood sample was collected .A total number of 50 non pregnant women mean age of 20 ± was used as control in the research
This study compares the copper level in pregnant women and non pregnant as test subject and control respectively while checking the effect the copper level will have on Red blood cell parameters in the pregnant women

Summary

Introduction

Copper is an essential trace mineral (micronutrient) that is naturally present in some foods and is available as a dietary supplement. It is a cofactor for several enzymes (known as “cuproenzymes”) involved in energy production, iron metabolism, neuropeptide activation, connective tissue synthesis, and neurotransmitter synthesis [1]. One abundant cuproenzyme is ceruloplasmin (CP), which plays a role in iron metabolism and carries more than 95% of the total copper in healthy human plasma). Copper is essential to the proper functioning of organs and metabolic processes. The human body has complex homeostatic mechanisms which attempt to ensure a constant supply of available copper, while eliminating excess copper whenever this occurs [2]

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Discussion

Conclusion