IP Indian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology 5 (2019) 239–242
Content available at: iponlinejournal.com
IP Indian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology
Journal homepage: www.innovativepublication.com
Original Research Article
Study on serum copper, zinc and selenium trace element levels in
Psoriasis
Vijaya Mohan Rao
1,
*, M Deepthi
1
, K Ramalingam
2
, M Prasad Naidu
2
, Mahaboob V.
Shaik
3
1
Dept. of Dermatology, Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
2
Dept. of Biochemistry, Narayana Medical College And Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
3
Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received 13-06-2019
Accepted 20-08-2019
Available online 14-09-2019
Keywords:
Psoriasis
Zinc
Copper
Selenium P Value 0667 0266
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Psoriasis is one of the skin disorder, mainly characterized by scaly papules and plaques. The
etiology of psoriasis is multifactorial and still not properly understood. In our study, we tried to elucidate
the relation between psoriasis and trace elemens namely Zinc, Copper and Selenium.
Materials and Methods: This study enrolled 50 psoriasis patients with 37 males and 13 females, with 10-
80 years age. The patients were randomly selected from the outpatient clinic of Dermatology, Venereology
and Leprosy Department, Narayana medical college and hospital. The age, sex matched 50 healthy
volunteers included as controls in this study. Levels of serum Copper (Cu), Zinc(Zn), and Selenium(Se)
analysed using Atomic absorption Spectrophotometery.
Results: In our study, the mean Serum Zinc, Selenium and Copper levels were 61.9680±15.96824,
64.2060±17.44780 and 56.4120±8.51976 respectively, lower than the controls which was stastically
significant (P<0.05).
Conclusion: In psoriasis, serum Cu, Zn and Se levels were observed to be low, needs to manage
therapeutically by oral supplementation. More studies are required to carryout to standardize the diagnostic
levels of Cu, Zn and Se and their role in psoriasis pathogenseis.
© 2019 Published by Innovative Publication.
1. Introduction
Psoriasis, chronic inflammatory and hyper proliferative
papilosquamous skin disease, characterized by erythema-
tous papules and plaques with silvery white scales cover.
It ranges in severity from a few plaques to involvement
of almost the entire body surface.
1
The pathogenesis of
psoriasis is still poorly understood. It results from the
interactions between genetic predisposition and a large
spectrum of environmental risk factors, such as diet, alcohol
consumption, stress, obesity, smoking.
2
Essential trace
elements like copper, Zinc, selenium, manganese, iodine,
iron, cobalt, tin, molybdenum, and chromium.
3
There is very limited data available on role of trace
elements in etiopathogenesis of psoriasis. In the current
study, the role of trace elements in psoriasis was
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: drmahaboobvs@gmail.com (V. Mohan Rao).
investigated.
4
The environment and skin metabolism may contribute to
treatment of psoriasis, by producing oxygen species which
causes the oxidative
Table 1: Mean serum levels of Zn, Cu and Se in cases and
controls.
Cases N=50 Control N=50 p value
Zinc 61.9680
±15.96824
78.2280 ±
12.80776
<0.0001
Copper 64.2060 ±
17.44780
114.5800 ±
19.71284
<0.0001
Selenium 56.4120 ±
8.51976
85.6300 ±
11.95779
<0.0001
stress.
5,6
Trace elements influences the immune
responses and enzymatic activities, the imbalance in
trace elements leads changes in the enzymatic dependant
https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijced.2019.051
2581-4710/© 2019 Published by Innovative Publication. 239