Associations between serum bilirubin levels and essential trace elements status in an adult population

OBJECTIVE This paper aims to evaluate the relations between serum bilirubin and essential trace elements in an adult population. RESULTS Demographic and clinical data were stratified according to the median of serum bilirubin concentrations (50th percentiles). There were statistical differences in regarding with age, body mass index, white blood count, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, alanine aminotransferase, creatinine, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, iron, zinc and copper. Studying the correlation of serum bilirubin levels with iron, zinc, copper and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, we found positive correlations for iron and zinc, and negative correlations for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and copper in whole participants. Similar results of correlation analysis were repeated when the further analyses were performed separately for subjects with high and low serum bilirubin concentrations. Similar results were also observed in gender-based stratified analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that serum bilirubin levels were independently correlated with serum iron, zinc and copper. MATERIALS AND METHODS The cross-sectional study involved 264 healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS The current study demonstrated that serum bilirubin within the reference range is correlated with iron, zinc and copper in an adult population, regardless of potential confounders.