Hair zinc and copper: relationship to hair type and serum concentrations in children and adolescents.

The zinc and copper serum and hair concentrations of 691 3-18-y-old girls and boys previously determined as a part of the Multicentre Study of Atherosclerosis Precursors in Finnish Children and Adolescents were further analyzed in order to find a possible association between these two zinc and copper indices. The influence of hair color and the diameter of individual hair strands on hair concentrations were studied by the analysis of covariance. Hair color and serum zinc concentrations were found to be associated with hair zinc concentrations in boys. Such an association was not found for zinc and copper concentrations in girls. Hair vs serum concentrations in different age and hair color groups did not show however, a significant relationship either in copper or in zinc concentrations. The subjects with very low or high serum zinc or copper concentrations did not usually have extreme hair concentrations and vice versa. However, there were some subjects with low or high serum concentrations associated with low or high hair concentrations.