Zinc homeostasis in pediatric critical illness*

Abstract

Plasma zinc concentrations are low in critically ill children. Plasma zinc correlated with measures of inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6) on day 3; low plasma zinc concentrations were associated with the degree of organ failure on day 3. These data serve as the basis for a larger study of shifts in plasma zinc concentrations in critically children to potentially identify patients who might benefit from zinc supplementation.

Clinical review: Sepsis and septic shock - the potential of gene arrays

“…Since normal zinc homeostasis is absolutely critical to normal immune function [61], these observations have raised the possibility of zinc supplementation as a potentially safe and low cost therapeutic strategy in clinical septic shock and other forms of critical illness [62-64]. Importantly, Knoell and colleagues [65,66] have independently corroborated that zinc supplementation is a highly beneficial strategy in experimental sepsis.…”

Differential expression of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial transcriptome in pediatric septic shock

“…In this focused analysis of a comprehensive genomic expression database, we found that nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes are differentially regulated early in Male sex, n (%) 37 (69) 38 (52) 34 (64) Comorbid condition, n (%) 20 (37) 36 (49) 20 (38) Blood counts at time of blood draw (36) 18 (25) 15 (28) Gram-negative bacteria 9 (17) 16 (22) 11 (21) Other organism 3 (6) 4 (5) 6 (11) Negative cultures 22 (42) 35 (48) 21 (40) Maximum number of organ failures Insulin, n (%) 1 (2) 5 (7) 2 (4) Corticosteroids, n (%) 20 (37) 39 (53) 11 (18) Figure 4 Gene Expression Dynamics Inspector-generated mosaics of differentially expressed mitochondrial genes for the three septic shock subgroups. The 162 genes are depicted along the same coordinates across the three expression mosaics.…”

“…The database has enabled the discovery of gene expression-based subclasses of pediatric septic shock [21][22][23], stratification biomarkers [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], diagnostic biomarkers [32][33][34][35], and novel therapeutic targets [36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Here, we mined the database to test the hypothesis that expression of whole blood-derived nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes will be differentially regulated between pediatric patients with septic shock and nonseptic controls within the first 24 hours of presentation to the PICU.…”

El niño con Síndrome de Down en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos

“…Se ha evidenciado en pacientes críticos que niveles plasmáticos bajos de zinc se correlaciona con la magnitud de la falla orgánica 44 . Por otra parte, ha sido demostrado en un modelo experimental animal y en pacientes sépticos que la presencia de menores niveles séricos de zinc se asocia a mayor mortalidad 45 .…”