Vitamin and mineral status in Down syndrome

Abstract

: Down syndrome is a frequently seen mental retardation with various physical and biochemical problems. These individuals also show accelerated aging process. It is thought that one of the major causes for these impairments is the failure in antioxidant defense mechanism. Efficiency in the enzymatic function, and vitamin and mineral intake is an important consideration in dealing with the antioxidant mechanism and early aging. : The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of the vitamins A and E and zinc and copper in DS (n = 30) and healthy (n = 30) children with an age range of 5 months to 13 years in Turkey. Vitamin levels are determined simultaneously by high performance liquid chromatography and minerals by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The data are analyzed using Mann-Whitney U-test. : The results indicated that there was no difference between the sexes in both groups. Vitamins E and A, and Cu were statistically significant between the normal and DS groups but Zn was less in the latter. The sample was divided as 47 months or younger and 48 months or older age category and differences between and within age groups were investigated. It was found that vitamin E was significantly lower in the younger category of the DS sample. In the older children vitamin E level was reached to that of the normal children, that is, older children of both groups had similar amount. When the age categories were compared between the two groups the Zn level was significantly less in both younger and older DS than normal children. Vitamin A and Cu were not different between the age categories of normal and DS children. : The study indicated that Turkish children are in many respects similar to those of Western Europe and North America even though there are obvious socioeconomic differences. There were, however, some variations in the amount of Cu among these populations. This study also indicates that there was no sexual difference. While other studies did not analyze the age difference, it was obvious that younger DS children had lesser amount of these vitamins and zinc.