Trace Element Levels and Oxidant/Antioxidant Status in Patients with Alcohol Abuse Devrim Saribal 1 & Fatma Sinem Hocaoglu-Emre 2 & Fulya Karaman 3 & Hasan Mırsal 4 & Mehmet Can Akyolcu 5 Received: 4 January 2019 /Accepted: 17 February 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Alcohol abuse is a well-known cause of imbalance in trace element levels and oxidant/antioxidant status of individuals with long time consumption. However, the levels of these parameters in the patients on the early stages of alcohol dependence without liver damage differ on various studies. The aim of our study was to measure the levels of trace elements in the serum and oxidative/ antioxidative system members in the red blood cells (RBC) of early-stage alcoholic individuals and compare with control subjects. Our study included 21 male patients recently hospitalized for alcohol abuse and 25 healthy non-abusing male controls. Levels of Fe, Zn, and Cu in the serum and MDA, SOD, CAT, and GSH in the red blood cells (RBC) of the subjects were measured. Fe, Zn, and Cu levels were lower in the study group when compared to the controls. Levels of lipid peroxidation marker MDAwas high, whereas the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD and CAT were decreased in our study group. However, levels of GSH, an antioxidant compound were higher in the alcohol abuse group. RBC SOD levels were positively correlated with Fe, Cu, Zn, and CAT. There was a positive correlation between Fe-Cu, Zn-Fe, Zn-Cu, CAT-Zn, and CAT-SOD. MDA was negatively correlated with Fe, Zn, SOD, and CAT. The results obtained from present study indicate that high levels of alcohol intake are related with increased oxidative damage and decreased levels of antioxidant enzymes and trace elements. Additionally, antioxidant compensation mechanisms are still on process in the early stages of chronic alcohol exposure. Keywords Trace elements . Alcohol abuse . Alcoholism . MDA . SOD . Catalase . GSH Introduction Alcohol use and abuse are observed in an increasing trend and cause serious health issues worldwide. The rate of emerging possible complications increases as a result of prolonged con- sumption time and high dosage [1]. Alcohol abuse (AA) causes systemic problems with the recruitment of different possible mechanisms and deficiency of many elements, cofac- tors, and coenzymes. Iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) are among these ele- ments, the insufficiency of which cause disturbances in the me- tabolism of biological substances. Zn is a trace element, playing role in the metabolism of crucial enzymes for the maintenance of homeostasis. Zn deficiency has been shown to be related with many pathologies. Among them, an impaired immunological response is one of the most important problems [2]. In normal circumstances, liver microsomes promote the detoxification pro- cesses in the hepatocytes, via cytochrome p450 enzymes in alcoholic individuals. Additionally, liver alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) induces conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde with a reversible reaction, resulting in alterations in the redox state of the cells. Zn is a cofactor for ADH, besides more than 300 other enzymes playing role in different metabolic pathways. Zn is also found in the structure of SOD, one of the most potent antioxi- dative system enzymes, deficiency of which is related to the increased rate of oxidative stress. Although both Zn and Cu can be ingested with diet, defi- ciencies of these elements are widely observed in alcoholic * Fatma Sinem Hocaoglu-Emre sinemhocaoglu@yahoo.com 1 Department of Biophysics, Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey 3 Department of Physiology, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Medical Faculty, Çanakkale, Turkey 4 Center for Treatment of Substance Abuse, Balikli Rum Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 5 Department of Biophysics, Girne American University Medical School, Kyrenia, Cyprus Biological Trace Element Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-019-01681-y